MacKenzie Moranz performs the same routine before every game. The Syracuse goalie warms up by making saves on short-distance shots and long-distance shots and defending crosses from the sideline.

With four minutes left before the start of the game, Moranz begins passing with Syracuse head coach Phil Wheddon right in front of the team’s bench. They start about 20 yards apart and move farther back with every kick until their kicks span close to 50 yards.

The routine mirrored the sophomore’s expanding role before the Orange tied UConn, 1-1, in its home opener on Monday. Moranz was supposed to be the team’s backup goalie until an injury to freshman Courtney Brosnan made her the Orange’s starter without any in-game experience.

Now Moranz has started all four games for Syracuse (1-1-2) and is experiencing the growing pains of a first-year starter. Wheddon —who said Moranz has to improve her footwork —recognizes the position she’s in and has approved of her play early in the season.

“A goalkeeper gets better with experience,” Wheddon said. “You don’t get better in training. You can do technical things in training but you’ve got to play games, so every game she’s getting better and better.”

For the prior four seasons, the Orange didn’t think twice about its goalie. Brittany Anghel was a four-year starter who set school records in wins, with 28, and shutouts, with 21.

Following Anghel’s graduation this past spring, SU entered 2014 with two potential replacements for Anghel on its roster —Moranz and Brosnan. During preseason, Brosnan suffered an injury, narrowing Wheddon’s options and catapulting Moranz into the lineup.

Moranz has played the entirety of all four games thus far and has allowed four goals.

“It’s different, but it’s good,” Moranz said of becoming the starting goalie. “You’ve got to push yourself every day to keep making those bigger strides when you get the opportunity.”

But even before knowing she’d be a starter, Moranz intensely prepared for her sophomore season.

Over the summer, Moranz did crossfit workouts multiple times a week while also swimming, lifting weights and training. Adam Palumbo, her high school coach at Pittsford Sutherland, described her as a “machine.”Moranz’strong communication skills helped her defense’s organization and gave her teammates the confidence to trust her in high school.

“I think her strongest opponent is herself,” Palumbo said, “and I think she needs to realize that she’s doing a great job no matter what, because she is harder on herself than anyone else. I think that sometimes can deter her. But she is mentally the toughest girl I’ve coached around.”

Against UConn, Moranz’s first-ever start at SU Soccer Stadium, she made a glaring mistake. Ten minutes into the game, she allowed a goal on a long-range shot from beyond the 18-yard box. The ball came screaming through the air and whizzed past Moranz, who had more time than usual to react.

“When you look at the goal that we conceded, you would say that you would want that one to be saved,” Wheddon said, “but then she came up with the huge save at the end to preserve the tie.”

After keeping the Orange alive throughout the game, Moranz made the most important save of the contest in the second overtime period. She doveto stop a shot inside the box with less than three minutes left in the game, stretching her hand and tipping the ball with her orange and white Nike glove.

On the heels of that save, Syracuse avoided a loss to the Huskies for just the second time in 20 meetings.

Moranz isn’t Anghel, not yet at least, but her save percentage in her first four career starts (84.6 percent) is better than Anghel’s was (66.7 percent) at that point of her career. And with every step back that Wheddon and Moranz take in their pregame routine, Moranz takes a step forward once the whistle blows.

“MacKenzie is still learning,”Wheddon said. “She’s thrust into this position and she’s doing a great job so far.”

Published on September 3, 2014 at 12:15 am

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds