SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Lucy Pearson’s two saves in overtime provided the defensive posture needed to push the game into an extra frame, but a late goal halfway through the second overtime period propelled Syracuse past the Cardinal as No. 7/6 Stanford dropped its first game of the season to No. 11/10 Syracuse, 14-13 in double-overtime on Friday evening.
Syracuse got off to the hot start in the evening affair, amassing a 3-0 lead through the first five minutes before Maddigan Miller’s eighth of the season put the Cardinal on the scoresheet. The Orange, however, tallied the final goal of the frame to end the first quarter with a 4-1 lead.
Syracuse thought it was firing on all cylinders after depositing the first goal of the second quarter to take a 5-1 lead. Then Stanford went on a run.
Kickstarted by a Martha Oakey tally with under 10 minutes in the half, Stanford grabbed the next six goals to take its first lead of the evening and extend the game to a 7-5 advantage with six minutes left. Oakey bookended three stanford goals inside a minute, grabbing her fourth and fifth goals of the season while Ava Arceri’s 17th of the season slotted inside the two Oakey tallies.
The goal that got the run started! Oakey put 'em in the spin cycle and picked her spot!#GoStanford x #Together pic.twitter.com/SoTOy5OSrG
— Stanford Lacrosse (@StanfordWLax) March 7, 2025
Elise Murphy also got on the scoresheet after assisting on three of Stanford’s first six goals, grabbing her eighth of the season to give the Cardinal the lead while Lindsey Devir’s brace gave Stanford a 7-5 lead. After Syracuse struck back with under two to go in the half, Arceri slotted home her 18th of the year as Stanford grabbed an 8-6 lead into the halftime break.
Stop us if you've heard us before: defense. to. offense. #GoStanford x #Together pic.twitter.com/1p1BRLLZfz
— Stanford Lacrosse (@StanfordWLax) March 7, 2025
The back-and-forth affair continued in the third quarter with the Orange securing five of the next six goals including one in the dying stages of the quarter to take a three-goal lead heading into the final frame.
Needing a comeback, Stanford grabbed four of the final five goals of regulation with Arceri’s hat trick tally just in front of the two minute mark standing as the game-tying goal. The Cardinal, however, kept pressing through the remainder of regulation with the final chance coming off the stick of Devir, whose final bid was stopped by Syracuse’s Daniella Guyette to push the game to overtime.
In the extra frame, both goaltenders stood tall with Pearson collecting her eighth and ninth saves of the evening in the first overtime to keep the Orange off the board. On the other end, Stanford’s lone bid off of Arceri’s stick was unable to best Guyette. With the gruelling affair moving to an extra overtime period, it was Syracuse who had the final opportunity, cashing in on a feed late in the shot clock on their only possession of the second overtime as the Cardinal fell, 14-13 (OT2).
No. 7/6 Stanford is back in action on Sunday, March 9, taking on the Cornell Big Red in Ithaca, N.Y. Opening draw is slated for 9 a.m. PT.