With 15:30 left in the first half of Saturday’s NCAA tournament quarterfinal, Boston College midfielder Cali Ceglarski whacked the ball away from Syracuse attack Alyssa Murray behind the Eagles’ net.

Murray responded with a hard check in the back of the end zone that drew a whistle. The foul gave possession to BC, and Murray was forced to retreat on defense.

Both Murray and Kayla Treanor struggled to generate offense for the second-seeded Orange (20-2, 6-1 Atlantic Coast) in a 11-9 victory at the Carrier Dome. A suffocating game plan from No. 7-seed BC (15-6, 3-4) forced SU’s secondary scoring threats to carry the team to a final four matchup with No. 6-seed Virginia on Friday in Towson, Md.

“If you can take out (Treanor and Murray), you have a good chance of winning,” BC midfielder Kate McCarthy said. “I mean … we came out flying. The first 17 minutes I think, they didn’t have a goal.

“Unfortunately, (Katie) Webster and other girls stepped up pretty nicely in the second half.”

Murray and Treanor had combined for 126 of SU’s 306 goals entering the rematch with the Eagles, but the duo managed only three goals Saturday.

Early in the game, the Orange struggled to maintain possession in its offensive zone. When it did, though, its star scorers found little room to operate around the crease.

When SU faced the Eagles on Feb. 26, Murray and Treanor were forced to fight through a few early slides behind the net and atop the scoring arc before breaking free for a combined five goals. Unlike in that contest, however, they were unable to find clean looks on Saturday.

“We figured they were going to do something similar to that, but they obviously did that even more so this game,” Murray said. “Every time I got the ball and they slid, I kept looking back to the top to Katie, Amy (Cross), Bridget (Daley) and whoever was there.”

That was the plan drawn up by BC head coach Acacia Walker, who made sure two defenders were draped on SU’s leading scorers throughout the first half. As a result, neither one fired a shot on goal during the opening 30 minutes.

“It was a goal to stop both of them, so we had early doubles sent to them,” Walker said. “It was working for a long time, and the plan behind it was good.”

In the end, though, it wasn’t enough.

Murray broke free in the opening moments of the second frame for her only tally, while Treanor would bury an Amy Cross pass for the eventual game-winner with four minutes left.

The pressure continued to flummox Treanor late in the game, however, as the sophomore hit the post with 1:58 remaining when the Eagles had pulled goalkeeper Zoe Ochoa for an extra attacker. Luckily, defender Natalie Glanell redeemed the blunder by scoring her only goal of the season moments later to seal the win.

Murray joked afterward that she felt like she was taking on seven defenders. At the same time, she said it allowed her teammates to find seams within the 8-meter arc to convert for goals.

“They were being marked tight, and Bridget Daley getting a couple goals early was huge,” Orange head coach Gary Gait said. “It was a great team effort. The other players really did step up when we needed them.”

Published on May 17, 2014 at 6:16 pm