No. 11 Syracuse women’s lacrosse falls in season opener to No. 7 Maryland

No. 11 Syracuse women’s lacrosse opened up its season with a loss for only the second time in nearly 20 years after falling 9-5 to No. 7 Maryland. The loss was also the first matchup with the Orange for their new head coach, Regy Thorpe. 

Thorpe came over from the University of Florida, where he helped lead the Gators to back-to-back 20-win seasons and an appearance in the national semifinals in 2024 and 2025. 

Despite the margin of victory, the Orange actually outshot the Terrapins 38–19, but just weren’t able to find the net. The new coach knows his team still has work to do. 

“At the end of the day we got to bury some of those shots.” Thorpe said. “You look at the stats and you hang 38 shots and get eight meter opportunities. You’re usually on the positive side of the ball so it’s an area we’ve got to clean up.”

For the Terps, it was quality over quantity, with better shot selections and angles they were able to score nine goals on just 19 shots. The key player on offense for Maryland was attack Lauren Lapointe. The junior led all scorers with five goals. That performance tied for her career high. 

Lapointe stepped up after SU shut down midfielder Kori Edmondson, the Terrapin’s leading goal scorer from last year. The tight defense and double teams allowed players like Lapointe to slip through the cracks and find the net from all over the field. 

Syracuse goalkeeper Daniella Guyette is prepared to make in-game adjustments moving forward after being caught off guard by Lapointe.

“She definitely caught me by surprise on a couple of those and I didn’t make as many of the adjustments as I would have liked to.” Guyette said.

But it wasn’t just offense that the Terrapins excelled in. Goalie JJ Suriano was a brick wall, and tallied 16 saves. The defense as a whole frazzled Syracuse, causing them to force erratic shots and dominant play that locked up SU’s leading scorer from last season, attack Emma Muchnick. 

The defensive pressure didn’t go unnoticed by Coach Thorpe.

“You’ve got to be efficient, that’s the key.” Thorpe said. “Maryland got all over our hands and we kind of took those low angle shots and took the fools gold, took the bait a little bit and settled for those not great angled shots.”

Despite Maryland leading and dominating for most of the matchup, Syracuse found a spark late. In the last two minutes, the Orange slotted in two goals cutting the lead down to four, but it was too little too late.

This ranked matchup is just one of many for the Orange. They take on four straight ranked foes to open the year and, according to Lacrosse Reference, possess the most challenging schedule in Division 1. 

The gauntlet of a schedule continues next week when SU welcomes No. 1 North Carolina to town. Game time between SU and UNC is Friday at 2:30 p.m.