Syracuse freshman Mike Springer started off the action five minutes into the first with a RIP from the upper left. Soon after, Tim Burns, following a sweet over the head takeaway, got shouldered with a questionable penalty, which Virginia was unable to capitalize on thanks to a couple of huge saves by Rob Mulligan. Josh Kaufman capped out the first quarter with two goals coming around from the right, and added an assist with a quick dump to Ryan Powell after coming around from the left. Syracuse bolstered their early showing by being relentless in front of the goal -- constantly peppering Kenney with a barage of shots. Jason Hard finally got Virginia on the board with one minute to go in the first quarter after a drive straight up the middle from the faceoff. Syracuse, always right there to match, did so as Springer scored his second of the game off of a back door cut and sharp cross-crease feed from Powell. UVA countered with twenty seconds to go after Jay Jalbert drew a triple team and dished for a point blank Ian Shure goal. Meanwhile, Cuse's sticks were flying like crazy on defense, with a couple nasty over-the-heads and whirlibirds. The Orangemen did their first damage of the second quarter off a man-up goal by Josh Coffman, which came from a questionable push-from-behind call. Syracuse pumped the score up to 8-4 after they performed what looked like a pile driver on Virginia defender Peter Ragosa during a failed UVA clear and turned it back on Kenney. The second quarter seemed to be when Ryan Powell started having his way with Ryan Curtis by bulling around the cage, getting into scoring position, and waiting for Curtis to throw something behind his back-- which Curtis obliged with a little too often.

But the Cavaliers closed the gap and took advantage of a huge discrepency in time of possession by thwarting most orangemen clears and holding them to little or no posession time for the tail end of the second quarter; it allowed UVA the time to pick their spots, and Drew Mcknight did, with a pair of spectacular drives to the hoop. The teams left for their locker rooms at halftime with Syracuse up, 9-6.

The third belonged to UVA as David Jenkins put on a faceoff clinic, enabling the Cavs to dominate possesion. It didn't help Cuse that they picked that point to start botching clears and losing the ground balls. Curtis started playing some great body defense against Powell, often tossing him to the ground and heading the other way. Abrams was also quietly blanking Conor Gill, but AJ Shannon and Ian Shure picked up the slack, and UVA pulled out a 4-0 third, entering the fourth up by one.

The fourth saw a seesawing trading of goals, with a host of nail biting rips that missed the cage by inches, but nothing connected in the last couple of minutes, and both squads headed into OT. It didn't take long -- after a couple of toss-up midfield possesions, Cuse finally settled the ball on their end, and just like that, Powell lost Curtis with a quick misdirection from behind the goal, made a beeline for the front of the cage and dove with a lefthander to put it behind Kenney. Syracuse 13, Virginia 12.