Between the weather, sloppy play, and 17 turnovers, little was pretty for #3 Syracuse in their regular season finale at Colgate — save for the final result.
The Orange survived the Raiders 11-9, to close out the regular season with a 12-2 mark.
‘Cuse now awaits its seeding for the NCAA Tournament, which will be announced Sunday night.
The Orange is basically a lock for a high seed, and thus a first round home game inside the Carrier Dome.
Against Colgate, SU raced out to a quick 3-0 lead, thanks to back-to-back scores from junior Brendan Bomberry. The Denver transfer finished the day with 3 goals and an assist, as the visitors looked to be in cruise control against their CNY rivals.
But the Raiders answered with their own three goal run, keyed by a pair of tallies from Sam Cleveland, who led all scorers with 4 goals.
‘Cuse retook the lead in the 2nd quarter — and led 6-4 at the half — before Colgate went on another 3-0 run to start the 3rd quarter.
SU again countered, and re-took the lead late in the 3rd off a score by ACC Offensive Player of the Year Sergio Salcido.
That was part of a decisive four goal run by the Orange that put them on top for good.
Senior face-off specialist Ben Williams went 16-for-23 at the midfield ‘X,’ which helped make up for 17 Syracuse turnovers.
SU now seeks its first trip to the Final Four since 2013.
The current Orange seniors are trying to avoid being the first Syracuse class since 1979 to go through four years at SU without a Final Four appearance.
