With fall sports upon us, Daily Orange beat writers provided some snapshot insight into what to expect from Syracuse’ non-revenue teams this season, seen below.

Men’s soccer

Led by head coach Ian McIntyre for the fifth year, Syracuse enters the 2014 season looking to take the leap from conference bottom-feeder to conference contender.

The Orange features a young and incredibly skilled roster. Sophomores Emil Ekblom, an All-Atlantic Coast Conference second team and All-ACC freshman team honoree last year, Alex Halis and Chris Nanco were the top three scorers on last season’s 10-7-1 squad. Halis, a highlight-reel playmaker, and Nanco, a midfielder with a knack for the big moment, each started all but one game last year.

Classmate Oyvind Alseth started every game last season and finished second on the team in assists, leading McIntyre to call him one of the best right backs in the ACC.

The backbone of the team is junior goalkeeper Alex Bono, one of the top netminders in the country. Bono tied for third in the ACC with eight shutouts last year.

SU’s youth is complemented by experience in the midfield and on defense. The midfield features a local product, junior Stefanos Stamoulacatos, who has started 33 of 39 games in his career, along with Nick Perea, who has started 52 of 55. The defense returns three, three-year starters in Jordan Murell, Syklar Thomas and Chris Makowski.

Joining the Orange’s experienced core is a group of new players that might see playing time right away. Twenty-one-year-old freshman Julian Buescher is expected to contribute to the offense right away. Redshirt sophomore Liam Callahan, a transfer from Villanova, may join the defensive rotation early on.

The Orange will open its regular season against Niagara on Aug. 29 at SU Soccer Stadium at 2 p.m.

Volleyball 

Syracuse will have to replace its entire starting rotation of setters.

Going into its second season in the Atlantic Coast Conference, Syracuse is looking to improve upon a 16-16 (11-9) season that saw it left out of the NCAA tournament.

SU had three setters last season including freshman Erica Handley, who led the team in assists and finished fourth in digs while playing all 122 of the team’s sets. But Handley, a Minnesota native, decided to transfer and play for the University of Minnesota after the season.

Handley’s departure leaves the team with only one true setter in Alyssa Anderson, one of the seven incoming additions to the roster. Other additions include right side Stacey Smith, who transferred from the University of Georgia, as well as one of Anderson’s former teammates, middle blocker Leah LeVert.

Middle blocker and outside hitter Christina Oyawale joins defensive specialists Belle Sand, Dana Crispi and Anna Connelly to round out the incoming freshman class.

Outside of setters, the Orange returns its top six scorers from last season, including outside hitters Silvi Uattara and Nicolette Serratore. Uattara, a junior, led the team in points and kills last season and Serratore, a senior, finished second on the team in both categories while also racking up the second-most digs.

The Orange opens its 2013–14 season with the Syracuse Tournament, hosted at the Women’s Building on Aug. 30 and 31. SU will kick it off against Delaware State at 11 a.m. on Aug. 30.

Cross country 

Syracuse is coming off its best NCAA national championship result in eight years under head coach Chris Fox.

The men, behind All-Atlantic Coast Conference performances from Martin Hehir, Robert Molke, Griff Graves, Max Straneva and MJ Erb, took home the conference title and the Northeast Regional Championship for the fourth time in five years and finished 10th at the NCAA national championship.

Hehir led the team with third-place finishes at the conference championship and regionals on his way to being named to the All-Region team, while Fox was named men’s cross country coach of the year by the ACC and Northeast Region.

Graves and Molke, who were also named to the All-Region team, graduated in May, but after redshirting his freshman year, former Fayetteville-Manlius high school star Nick Ryan is poised to fill the void. The local talent earned two state titles during his high school career and placed fifth at nationals.

The women finished 22nd in the NCAA national championship last season. Margo Malone and Meredith Speakman will lead the women again this season, after earning All-ACC and All-Region honors last year. Malone and Speakman turned in 11th- and 19th-place finishes at regionals, respectively.

Another notable freshman is Mary Malone, sister of Margo Malone. The younger sibling captured third- and 12th-place finishes in the last two years at the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association state championships.

Women’s soccer 

After last season, Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon said making the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament was the goal for 2014. Doing so means finishing the regular season in the top of what’s widely regarded as the best women’s soccer conference in the country.

Coming off a 7-11-1 (3-9-1, ACC) record and a 12th-place finish in its first season in the conference, the Orange will likely lean on youth and the return of its top six scorers to make Wheddon’s goal come to fruition.

Goalkeeper Brittany Anghel and defenders Rachel Blum and Kayla Afonso kept SU in many games last season. With the Orange ranking second-to-last in the ACC with 165 shots taken, though, six games ended in 1-0 Syracuse losses. Anghel, Blum and Afonso have all graduated.

That leaves sophomore Stephanie Skilton and junior Erin Simon, who scored nine and five goals, respectively, to make up for the team’s losses on offense. Help is likely to come from SU’s recruiting class, which ranks No. 17 in the country and No. 7 in the ACC by TopDrawerSoccer.com.

Field hockey

An otherwise successful season ended in disappointment last season. Returning several of its most talented players, though, Syracuse looks to avenge an early exit from the NCAA tournament a year ago.

Then-No. 2 Syracuse suffered a 2-1 upset in the first round of the tournament, losing to then-No. 20 Michigan State. And while the core of that team is back, SU will have to replace two All-Americans in Leonie Geyer and Laura Hahnefeldt.

Geyer tied for the team lead in points last season with 35 and Hahnefeldt anchored a defense that yielded just 1.3 goals per game.

Freshmen like Caroline Cady — who led Shenendehowa High School to a New York state title last year with 11 goals and eight assists — and others will have to help SU offset the loss of Geyer.

The return of second-team All-Mideast junior goalie Jess Jecko, who recorded a .723 save percentage, should help the Orange cope with Hahnefeldt’s absence. Second-team all Mideast senior Jordan Page, who has started every game since joining the program as a freshman in 2011, also returns after tallying eight assists last season.

Syracuse opens its season against Ohio State in Columbus on Aug. 29.

Published on August 20, 2014 at 1:03 am