After losing to Florida in last season’s NCAA quarterfinals, No. 7 Maryland had an equally tough challenge in its season opener on Saturday morning. 

The Terps hosted No. 6 Syracuse at the Maryland Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex, but suffered a fate reminiscent of last year’s postseason loss. Despite battling hard the entire game, Maryland couldn’t overcome an early deficit, ultimately falling to the Orange, 15-9. 

When Maryland faced Syracuse a season ago, it was a competitive low scoring game that went into double overtime and ended with Maryland winning, 9-8. Fans came out on a windy and rainy morning excited for a rematch that didn’t have the same outcome as last season.

Both teams started the first quarter out strong. Maryland won the first draw but quickly lost possession, leading to Syracuse’s Emma Ward scoring the first goal of the game all before a minute had gone by. Not too long after, Maryland senior Jordyn Lipkin tied the game helping Maryland match Syracuse’s energy. 

Maryland won the first six draw controls, yet the score was 5-1, in favor of Syracuse due to Maryland not being able to take care of the ball while on offense. After the sixth draw, Kaci Benoit — who had three caused turnovers during Syracuse’s last game against Albany — intercepted a Maryland pass that allowed Ward to lose her defender and score behind the back for a hat trick in the first quarter. 

After that goal, Maryland head coach Cathy Reese called a timeout. 

“We needed to reset, refocus, and we did, we came back,” Reese said. 

When the players returned back on the field Syracuse won its first draw control of the game, but it was Maryland’s Lipkin who scored her second and final goal of the game cutting the Orange’s lead to three with 3:05 left in the first quarter. The quarter ended with Syracuse leading 5-3. Reese’s timeout proved to be crucial, allowing Maryland to go on a mini two goal run to keep them in the game. 

The second quarter was similar to the first with Maryland continuously winning the draw control, but coming up short when it came to keeping possession. Syracuse’s freshman, Caroline Trinkaus, scored the first goal of the quarter at 10:11. By the end of the first half, the score was 8-4 with Syracuse in the lead. 

Maryland’s defense struggled when covering Ward. Ward ended the game responsible for 7 of the Orange’s 15 goals scored. If she was left with one defender on her she was finding a way to score, if she was double teamed she was easily able to assist a goal by finding an open teammate. 

In the fourth quarter, Maryland made huge efforts to come back the best they could. Syracuse played sloppy for a large chunk of the quarter which allowed Maryland to score 3 back-to-back goals within eight minutes. But when the buzzer went off at the end of the fourth quarter, Syracuse (2-0) rushed the field to celebrate the win, leaving Maryland (0-1) with its first loss of the season. 

“Everything we did was fixable. Everything is something we can change,” said junior Kori Edmondson — who scored 4 goals during this game. 

In the end, Syracuse had the advantage of this being its second game of the season, more returning players, and staying dominant throughout the whole game. 

Maryland plays its next game this Tuesday back at the Maryland Field Hockey and Lacrosse Complex at 4:30 PM against Georgetown.