Gary Gait knew Pennsylvania’s defense was sliding from Halle Majorana to Kayla Treanor. When Treanor would begin to penetrate, Majorana would be open.

And with a minute left in the first half, the Syracuse head coach called timeout and came up with a play to take advantage.

Treanor began to move toward the goal and when the Quakers slid, she threw a high lob just to the left of the UPenn crease. Majorana jumped in the air and swatted the ball into the back of the net to give Syracuse a two-goal lead.

Treanor, who usually celebrates goals without excessive gestures, lifted her left arm in the air with her stick and her right arm, too, while running to Majorana.

“Anytime you can draw something or you take a timeout and you can execute it, it really builds a lot of confidence going into halftime,” Gait said. “We were happy we executed and then we came out and played well in the second half.”

That goal came in the middle of a 5-1 run that swung the game in the Orange’s favor. No. 4-seeded Syracuse (15-7, 3-4 Atlantic Coast) advanced to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals with a 13-10 win over Penn (14-5, 6-1 Ivy) on Sunday afternoon at SU Soccer Stadium. The Orange will play Loyola (17-4, 8-0 Patriot) next weekend in the Carrier Dome.

Treanor, a Tewaaraton Award finalist, shined again with four goals and two assists while also taking draw controls in the middle of the game. After halftime, Syracuse scored four goals in an eight-minute span and Treanor contributed on three of them with a goal, an assist and a draw control that sparked a fast break.

“I think we took control in the first 10 minutes of the second half,” Gait said, “and really kind of just carried it through the rest of the way.”

Thirteen minutes into the game, Treanor won her first draw control. She alternated throughout the game with SU’s regular specialist Kailah Kempney, who is third all-time in the NCAA in career draw controls. After struggling early, Treanor gave her a rest.

Though Penn outdrew Syracuse 13-11, Treanor’s contributions in the circle helped mightily on the Orange’s 5-1 run.

With a 10-7 lead, Treanor flung the ball off the draw to Taylor Poplawski. She then passed to Riley Donahue, who scored easily from just outside Penn’s crease. The goal gave the Orange its largest lead of the game.

“There was a sway in the draws a little bit at one point when they got them for a while and they had the ball more,” Penn head coach Karin Corbett said. “That’s a game about possession. If you have the ball more, you most likely are going to win.”

With the game already in hand, Treanor scored SU’s final goal with three minutes left, leaving her mark in a game she controlled in many ways.

Afterward, Gait discussed the importance of getting big contributions from his team’s best players in the playoffs.

On Sunday, Treanor did it all.

Said Treanor: “Luckily we started turning things around and things started going our way.”

Published on May 10, 2015 at 6:21 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds