Syracuse women’s lacrosse: Orange pull rabbit out of hat with last-second escape in 10-9 Duke win

SYRACUSE, NEW YORK - MARCH 17: Daniella Guyette #0 of the Syracuse Orange during a lacrosse game against the Yale Bulldogs at the JMA Wireless Dome on March 17, 2026 in Syracuse, New York. (Photo by Todd F. Michalek/Syracuse Athletics/University Images via Getty Images) The Syracuse Orange’s 11th straight win was their craziest yet, as they overcame some critical late penalties to narrowly escape Koskinen Stadium with a 10-9 win over the Duke Blue Devils on a warm Saturday afternoon in Durham.

The temps in the area may have been hot, but the action on the field was hotter as the teams traded blows in a back-and-forth slugfest where the goal was be the last team still on your feet. In the end, it was the Orange who absorbed the direct hits better and gutted out a hard-fought win that took until the final seconds to secure. ‘Cuse appeared on their way to a more comfortable victory midway through the fourth quarter, but that all changed when Izzy Lahah committed an unreleasable, two-minute dangerous contact yellow card for a very unnecessary up-high cross check on Duke’s Ava Pronti .

The Blue Devils, who scored a whopping five of their nine goals on the woman-up, made Lahah and the Orange pay dearly for that mistake. At that moment, ‘Cuse had scored the game’s last four goals and had a 9-6 lead with a little over seven minutes remaining in the game. It looked like they had already landed the knockout punch and were ready to once again ride their shutdown defense to the finish line.

But Duke had different ideas on the back of Lahah’s penalty. They proceeded with a good ole’ fashioned round of make-it-take-it, resulting in three goals in the span of 89 seconds to tie the game at 9-9 with 5:20 on the clock and six seconds still remaining on Lahah’s penalty. It was a spiraling sequence of events that felt like it put the Orange on the canvas, but you know a team that’s won 10 games in a row isn’t staying down that easily.