Six hours of Syracuse lacrosse: New coaching staffs, new eras, new hope

New Syracuse head lacrosse coach Kayla Treanor (middle, baseball cap) speaks with her team between Saturday scrimmages at Wohl Field. Sept. 25, 2021 (Donna Ditota)

Syracuse, N.Y. -- The day dawned sunny and bright Saturday for Syracuse’s lacrosse programs, each with new coaching staffs and each ushering in new eras.

Kayla Treanor and her women’s team began the day at Wohl Field, playing scrimmages against Albany, Villanova and Army. Gary Gait and his men’s team capped the afternoon with an intrasquad scrimmage in the Carrier Dome.

Both were open to the public. Statistics were not available for any of the games. The SU women’s roster has been updated; the men are still sorting through roster possibilities.

Here’s what happened:

The Kayla Treanor Era has unofficially (but kind of officially) begun. Treanor was hired over the summer to replace Gary Gait, who was hired to replace the retiring John Desko on the men’s side. Treanor, in an interview last week, said it didn’t seem much different moving from an assistant coaching position at Boston College to the head job at Syracuse, her alma mater.

“Coaching is coaching,” she said. “It hasn’t been a huge transition so far. I know it will be as I go through, a little bit more pressure, a lot of it falls on you. In general, I love to coach and I love this place.”

On Saturday, she wandered the Syracuse sideline, observing the action and occasionally speaking individually with players. It’s impossible to judge a coaching style by a few hours of exhibition games, but Treanor seems like a calm, cool presence thus far.

Her players have quickly warmed to her.

“Oh, she’s been awesome,” said Meg Carney, out for the fall as she recovers from ACL surgery. “I can’t wait to play and learn from her. She’s awesome. She gets excited when we do well. She’s so invested in us. And she wants the best for us.”

Emily Hawryschuk, who is also coming back from last season’s ACL tear, described the difference between Treanor and her new assistant, Kenzie Kent, a former All-American at Boston College who spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach at Harvard:

“I think Kenzie so far has really helped us with the fundamentals. Stick work, stick handling, shooting. That’s something where you look at her on the field and she’s amazing. So incredible at it. So for her to share that knowledge with us has been huge so far,” Hawryschuk said. “Kayla, her brain is so smart and her lacrosse IQ is off the charts. So whatever comes out of her mouth, it’s really good stuff. You have to listen to it. She makes you think different. She shows a different side of the game.”

The Orange retained defensive coordinator Caitlin Defliese.

Syracuse women's lacrosse midfielder Sam Swart signs autographs for members of the Common Goal/3D travel team, a group of sixth-graders who came to watch the Saturday's Orange scrimmages at Wohl Field. Sept. 25, 2021. (Donna Ditota)

Syracuse returns a ton of talent from last season’s national title game team, most notably Meghan Tyrrell, who led SU in points with a whopping 112 (68 goals, 48 assists). Tyrrell, a senior, was dodging and finishing near the crease all morning on Saturday.

SU also returns Emma Ward (43-30), Emma Tyrrell (42-16) and athletic middies Sam Swart (41-7) and Maddy Baxter (11-3) on offense.

Katelyn Mashewske took most of the draws. Sarah Cooper headlines the defense.

The Orange are in search of a new goalkeeper after starter Asa Goldstock graduated. SU divided the duties Saturday between goalies on its roster. Hannah Van Middelem, Tate Paulson, Delaney Sweitzer and Kimber Hower will battle for playing time. Hower is a transfer from North Carolina.

Former Syracuse women's lacrosse coach and current SU men's lacrosse coach Gary Gait attended the early portion of the women's scrimmages Saturday at Wohl Field. Sept. 25, 2021 (Donna Ditota)

Gary Gait attended the early portion of the women’s scrimmages before having to head over to the Dome to coach his own team. He stood on the sideline fairly distant from the team; on occasion, a player or two, some of them alumnae, came over to talk with him.

Over at the Dome, John Desko was on the field watching during the alumni game; he moved to the press box once the intrasquad scrimmage began. Desko, like Roy Simmons Jr. before him, has attended SU practices and remains around the team. Gait said Saturday that Desko is welcome to hang out at practice whenever he wants.

Gait was his usual calm, collected self on the SU men’s sideline. His new assistant coach, Dave Pietramala, wore a path in the Dome carpet with his constant patrol of the sideline. Pietramala, the former Johns Hopkins and Cornell head coach, remains a vocal, kinetic presence on the sidelines.

Treanor said she and Gait talk frequently.

“He’s definitely been an amazing mentor to me,” she said. “We just talk about different things that are going on in the program. We’re definitely trying to brand Syracuse lacrosse and make it one big umbrella of the programs. We’re both going for the same goal. We’re both trying for the same things.”

Gait said those conversations mostly focused on fundraising and recruiting. Both squads had alums in town this weekend. The men held an alumni game before their intrasquad scrimmage.

“She had a local recruit, so advice, and what do we want to do. She’s done a great job and then, fundraising,” Gait said. “We head to New York City on Wednesday for a big alumni event. We’ve got an alumni event tonight. We want to engage our alums, get ‘em back out here, get ‘em supporting the teams. We’ve been talking a lot about that and about how we can help each other to bring these programs together to help make each other better.”

The Syracuse men are really in the infancy of their fall sessions.

The men begin their 20-hours-a-week practices Monday. Because players are still trying out as walk-ons, the official roster has not been finalized, so several players (including all the freshmen) do not appear yet on a team roster. SU players used words like “excited” and “focused” to describe what these early practice sessions have been like.

The Orange is auditioning goalies after the graduation of Drake Porter.

Harrison Thompson (orange) and Shahe Katchadurian (white) started Saturday’s intrasquad game.

The Orange, for all its defensive troubles last season, were comparatively better on the offensive end. SU returns Owen Hiltz, Tucker Dordevic, Owen Seebold and captain Brendan Curry on that side of the ball.

Dordevic and Seebold each had multiple goals in Saturday’s scrimmage. Dordevic had the sweetest goal of the afternoon, a behind-the-back finish on the left crease.

The Gary Gait influence?

“I know when he spoke to us the first or second day in practice, he said if it works in practice and it goes, then you can try it in a game. So I just tried it and it worked,” Dordevic said. “But yeah, he lets us play pretty free, which is really enjoyable.”

TD Ierlan has joined the Syracuse coaching staff as a volunteer assistant, SU announced Friday. The addition of Ierlan, the NCAA’s all-time faceoff leader, is intriguing.

The Orange struggled to win faceoffs last season and Gait underscored the importance of bringing in someone who could help alleviate that issue. Ierlan played at Albany, Yale and then Denver, where he finished his career last May. He owns a .751 career faceoff number.

“I thought that was a very important position to fill,” Gait said. “TD is the greatest faceoff guy in NCAA history, so why not have him? He’s young, but he understands the mechanics, he’s been coaching kids for years. That’s the one thing if you’re a faceoff guy and you’re good, you’re an automatic coach because everybody calls you and says, ‘Can you train my son?’ He may be right out of college, but he’s been coaching kids for years.”

Gait said he’s “looking for the little details that will make a difference.” He anointed Jakub Phaup as the team’s No. 1 faceoff guy at this point.

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