Lieke Visser patiently surveyed the field. She had enough space to fire a shot, but instead, she saw teammate Lauren Brooks at the goal post and passed her the ball. Brooks fired it home for her second goal of the day.

Displays of that same patience and composure led No. 5 Syracuse (6-0) to a 5-0 win against Ball State on Sunday at J.S. Coyne Stadium. The Orange’s smoother game helped head coach Ange Bradley’s team take advantage of the wider gaps in the Ball State defense to rebound from a 2-1 escape in Saturday’s home opener against Albany.

“We were a bit nutty yesterday,” said Bradley. “We had better composure today. In our attack, in our patience, to be able to go forward and play Syracuse-style hockey.”

Some of the 10 freshmen on the team felt the pressure of the home opener, Bradley said, especially having to follow a class of players that only lost one game at home during their entire collegiate careers.

Bradley believes the patience and shot selection the team played with Sunday showed off a better version of the Orange.

“Put yourself in their shoes,” Bradley said. “Now you got to just realize we’re just playing, it makes no difference if we’re on Coyne or another field. You just got to play the game you love.”

While Bradley believes the biggest reason for the improved offensive performance comes from getting over the home-opening jitters, some of the players believe it was more a case of different opposing defenses yielding different results.

Against Albany’s more compact defense, the Orange failed to score until the 59:50 mark of the match, when Jordan Page scored to tie the game at one.

“The defense of Albany vs. Ball State were a little different,” Brooks said. “Albany was a little more aggressive in the circle in not letting us get as many shots off. I think once we adjusted to Ball State it was a little easier to open them up.”

SU only recorded 10 total shots Saturday. Against Ball State, the Orange was able to hit its goal total from the day before in just the first half with goals from Kati Nearhouse and Brooks, who both scored again in the second half. Outshooting BSU, 28-4, the Orange more than doubled the amounts of shots it tallied Saturday.

“I think I had a little space on the right side,” Visser said of her assist for SU’s third goal Sunday. “I had so (much) space there to work in the circle and look for the ball.”

Five minutes later, Page found herself in a similar situation not far from the goal. She could have forced a shot, but she had space and spotted Visser in front of the goal and passed to her instead. Visser put the ball in the net.

“We didn’t let them dictate,” Page said. “I think that was a really big part of it. Us deciding when to go for it and being patient and taking our space and just getting the ball on goal.”

Published on September 8, 2014 at 12:15 am

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