Lacrosse

WLAX : With short turnaround, Syracuse looks to ride momentum into NCAA tournament championship game

Syracuse head coach Gary Gait

STONY BROOK, N.Y. – Syracuse has no time to dwell on its latest accomplishment, no matter how exciting it might’ve been.

In its NCAA tournament semifinal game against Florida, the Orange rallied from a seven-goal deficit in the final 12 minutes to defeat the Gators 14-13 in double overtime and send SU to its first national championship in program history.

Less than 48 hours after the dramatic victory, the Orange will take the field in the championship game against Northwestern.

‘We have kind of a mantra where we end the game, end the play and it’s over,’ SU head coach Gary Gait said. ‘We move forward. And that comes into play right now as a team. That game’s in the past and we’re 100-percent focused on Northwestern moving forward and it’s business as usual.’

Though the Orange’s semifinal postgame press conference lasted more than the two minutes Gait half-jokingly suggested SU could enjoy the win for, it likely wasn’t much longer that Syracuse actually did dwell on the victory. The No. 4 Orange (19-3) was out to practice barely 12 hours later to prepare for Sunday’s 8 p.m. national title game against the No. 1 Wildcats (20-2) at LaValle Stadium in Stony Brook, N.Y. A victory would bring SU not only the first national championship in program history, but the first national championship in any women’s sport.



NU defeated No. 3 Maryland 9-7 in its semifinal game Friday night to advance to the championship against Syracuse.

But Northwestern should have no issue putting its tight victory in the rearview mirror. The Wildcat seniors will be playing in their fourth national championship and head coach Kelly Amonte Hiller has guided NU to win six of the last seven championships with Northwestern playing in all seven.

The SU players may not have the championship pedigree of the Wildcats, but the Orange has the coaching staff perhaps best equipped to guide Syracuse into the uncharted territory of a national championship.

During four seasons as a player with the Orange, Gait led SU to three national championships. In his pro lacrosse career, the Syracuse head coach has reached the pinnacle of the sport on several occasions. And his championship experience is certainly not lost on his players.

‘Gary has been in the national championship multiple times, even (volunteer assistant) Brett (Queener) has been in championships before,’ SU attack Michelle Tumolo said. ‘This coaching staff all put together is the best that you could ever ask for because they want it just as much as we do and that’s why we’re so prepared for all these amazing games.’

Syracuse has also already been tasked with putting an emotional victory behind it during this postseason. In the NCAA tournament quarterfinals, the Orange scored twice in the final 39 seconds to pull out a 17-16 victory over No. 5 North Carolina to send SU to the final four.

Syracuse followed up that performance with its improbable comeback against Florida to advance to the championship game.

Syracuse’s momentum propelled it past the No. 1 Gators. With even less time to lose some of that energy, the Orange can once again take advantage.

‘We’re going to take a lot of the momentum that we gained last night and try and use it to our advantage,’ SU attack Alyssa Murray said. ‘We got a lot of goals right towards the end and we were having a lot of chemistry. And even though it’s a new team we’re going to try and keep using that and fueling our fire.’

But even with all the momentum Syracuse has, the Orange has gotten this far by taking each game one at a time.

Even after its dramatic quarterfinal victory, SU knew the win wouldn’t matter unless it could beat the top-seeded Gators. Once again, Syracuse has grasped the magnitude of the situation-even in the small 24-hour window following the win.

‘It’s a dream come true,’ Murray said. ‘… We had always gone to these games as kids, and we used to think it was so cool with all those girls playing in it. And now that we’re all here, it’s an even cooler feeling because it’s actually you and you have fans watching you, looking up to you and then you just want to win it because it’s such a long journey throughout the season.

‘… It’s been quite a ride and it’s really awesome that I get to be a part of it.’

dbwilson@syr.edu





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