After last weekend’s defeat of then-No. 10 Notre Dame, Stanford women’s lacrosse took down No. 5 Syracuse on Sunday afternoon for one of the biggest wins in team history.

The No. 13 Cardinal’s 11-10 defeat over its second top-10 opponent improves the team to 3-0 on the season.

The squad got ahead early on in the game with goals by junior midfielder Emilie Boeri and freshman midfielder Anna Kim within the first 10 minutes. The 2-0 lead was then pushed to 4-1 as senior attacker Sarah Flynn and freshman attacker Rachel Ozer found the back of the net with 17:24 left in the first half. Three of those goals were assisted by senior Lauren Schmidt, who is also a member of the U.S. national team.

The Cardinal team controlled the ball most of the game, but the early lead didn’t prevent Syracuse from fighting back. A timeout called by Syracuse with 13:07 changed the momentum of the game for Syracuse and brought the game back within one at 4-3 Stanford.

Although Syracuse was closing in, the Cardinal kept the lead by winning the draw control and maintaining its composure while on attack. Stanford led in draw controls for the game, 13-9, which allowed for the extra edge of possession of the ball for Stanford. Goals by Schmidt and senior midfielder Leslie Foard, and a second by Emilie Boeri, left the Cardinal with a lead of 7-4 at the half.

After trading goals, the second half got off to a fiery start as Stanford ramped up its lead to 10-6. However, the Cardinal lead wouldn’t get any bigger, as Syracuse hustled to catch back up. Syracuse rattled off two quick goals to tighten the game up again, but Stanford kept the ball out of the hands of the Orange.

With 2:43 left on the game clock, the game had the fans sitting on the edge of their seats with the score at 11-10 and Syracuse gaining possession from a draw. After a timeout call, Syracuse set up a play to tie the score, but senior goalie Annie Read made her final save of the game. Read’s save put the ball in Stanford’s possession to run out the clock and defeat Syracuse by a single goal.

Sunday’s win over Syracuse marked the highest-ranked opponent that the Cardinal has beaten since 2009. When the national rankings are released later this week, there’s a good chance the Cardinal will skip up to the top 10.

The team plays next on Sunday at noon and will look to push its Cagan Stadium winning streak to 19 against Harvard.