Following a commanding 5-2 Virginia lead at halftime, Syracuse Women's Lacrosse used a 2nd half surge to pull ahead and edge the 'Hoos 10-9.
The Cavaliers had one final shot in with a minute remaining when Courtney Swan came up with a ground ball after Syracuse turned the ball over deep in its offensive zone.
Virginia's Casey Bocklet fired a shot that went wide.
Syracuse forced a turnover in the final seconds to hold on for the win.
"With Courtney coming up with that ball with a minute left, we thought we were in pretty good shape. It is a lot of pressure for the attackers to get the ball down and be able to do their thing. Casey Bocklet got a good shot off under a lot of pressure. It is disappointing to see that we had the ball with 10 seconds left and ended up not getting it to the middle and not getting one more final shot. I really thought we were going to tie it and go to overtime."
Virginia had six different scorers on the attacking end including a hat trick from Sophomore Morgan Stephens.
Defender Megan Dunleavy picked up four ground balls and a caused a turnover while Goalkeeper Kim Kolarik notched 10 saves.
"This was a game where I thought we controlled 90 percent of it, but it turns out we needed to control 95 percent," said Virginia head coach Julie Myers. "Syracuse was able to capitalize on some of our mistakes. They are a great team with great shooters and a lot of weapons. They all rose to the occasion and made their shots count when they needed them to."
Virginia returns to action Friday when they Host #4 Maryland at Klockner Stadium.
