ITHACA, N.Y. -- The No. 3 Syracuse Orange women's lacrosse team tallied 11 goals over the opening 30 minutes to hand Cornell a 17-4 loss on Tuesday afternoon from Schoellkopf Field. Syracuse improved to 10-3 on the year and has won the last sixteen games between the in-state rivals, while Cornell drops to 7-4 in its final non-conference game of 2024.

Junior Josie Vogel was a bright spot for the Big Red, finding the back of the net twice to extend her goals and points streak to 24 consecutive games. Sophomore Alexa Donahoe and senior captain Caitlin Slaminko tallied the other two goals, while Bridget Babcock handed out two assists on the day. Junior Ellie Horner suffered the loss for Cornell, making nine saves on 26 shot attempts, and senior defender Annie Thomas had a team-high four caused turnovers. 

Syracuse's potent offense doubled up the Big Red on shots on goal (26-13) and was led by four goals each from junior attacker Olivia Adamson and graduate student Emma Tyyrell. Emma Muchnick (three goals) and Savannah Sweitzer (two goals, one assist) closed top performers on the attack. Katelyn Mashewske held down the draw control circle with 12 of Syracuse's 20 wins, and Delaney Sweitzer made eight saves to earn her 10th win of the year in net. 

The Orange struck first with a free position goal for Tyrrell 18 seconds in to take a 1-0 lead. Cornell tried to counter a possession later off the stick of Gelabert, but Delaney Sweitzer stepped up and made a key save to give possession back to Syracuse. Turnovers plagued both squads over the next few trips for both teams before Tyrrell found her second of the quarter to extend the lead to two. Cornell's offensive struggles continued, as its shotless streak continued to jump up north of five minutes. Syracuse continued to test Horner in the cage with a shot that fell to Horner and one that slammed off the post. Syracuse won the race to the midline to keep the ball in the Cornell defensive zone before Sweitzer put home her first to make it 3-0. Cornell would finally muster up some offense after Sweitzer's goal with Donahoe netting her fifth of the year off a feed from Babcock to make the score 3-1 with 2:18 to go in the quarter. Syracuse immediately took the reigns back after Donahoe's goal, tallying two more past Horner to take a 5-1 lead after one.

Both teams traded goals to open the second quarter on Maddy Baxter and Vogel tallying their 24th and 27th of the year to keep the scoring difference at four. The back-and-forth immediately stopped after Vogel's goal with 9:01 left, as Adamson, Rowley, and Ward combined for a 4-0 run that closed the quarter to push the Orange to an 11-2 lead heading into halftime. Syracuse held the advantage in shots (11-7), shots-on-goal (10-4), and took all seven of the draw controls in the period. 

Coming out of the halftime break, Cornell put the pressure on with three shots toward Sweizter. But the graduate student stood tall, stopping all three. The Big Red defense also hunkered down by holding the potent Orange offense with no shots on goal for 8:03. The scoreless drought finally fell in favor of Cornell, with Vogel finding her second of the afternoon on a free-position attempt to put the third Big Red goal on the board. Syracuse immediately matched off the preceding draw off the stick of Sweitzer to go back up by nine with 6:02 to go. Cornell continued to try and tip the scales back in its favor with Slaminko firing a free-position shot that sailed into the top right corner past the stick of Sweitzer to get back within eight. That would be the final goal of the quarter, as neither side found the back of the net for the last five minutes.  

Syracuse continued to test the Cornell defense early in the fourth, ripping off three consecutive shots, with two going wide and the other falling into the webbing of Horner's stick. The pressure came to a head for the Orange offense, tallying two goals over less than 30 seconds to get its lead to ten and force a running clock. Cornell did its best to try and find the back of the net after taking a timeout, but Vogel and Sophie Ward fired two shots that went wide. The Syracuse offense did not slow down, finding the back of the net three more times on two from Muchnick and a woman-up goal by Adamson to take the 17-4 victory.

BIG RED NOTABLES

• With her two-goal performance, junior Josie Vogel tied her career-high (28) set last season and now has 74 in her Big Red career. 
• Cornell's four goals are the lowest it has scored against Syracuse since a 16-4 loss in Syracuse on April 6, 2014.
• Junior goalkeeper Ellie Horner tallied five or more saves for the seventh time this season.
• Cornell had a season-low four-draw controls against the Orange. It's the lowest the Big Red has had in a game since having four in a 13-7 win over Villanova on Feb 17, 2018.  
• The Big Red caused ten or more turnovers for the fourth time this season. 

UP NEXT
The Big Red will begin its four-game Ivy League stretch to close its 2024 regular season with a road trip to Harvard to battle the Crimson on Saturday, April 6. Opening draw is at noon, with action available to stream on ESPN Plus.