SU LAX's Time to Shine

After a heartbreaking loss to Army last postseason, ending any hopes of a three-peat, John Desko and the Orange look for revenge and their 11th NCAA title. By Sydney McMinn

Mid-April in Syracuse means the sun starts to come out of hiding and summer-itis kicks in for everyone. It also means the end of lacrosse season draws near. But the lack of motivation that seems to afflict the rest of Syracuse University has no affect on the 2011 men’s lacrosse team. Instead, the Orange hope to round out the regular season as dominantly as they have played up to this point to prepare for the impending postseason.

Desko (in the blue jacket)

The Orange started the season off strong with a 13-7 win over the then-No. 13 Denver Pioneers. SU showed its ability to work as a unit in this game, scoring most of the goals off assists, but struggled in the middle when Denver transitioned to a zone defense. Now that SU has seen it, though, they should be familiar enough to work around it. No. 18 Army visited the Carrier Dome next. The teams played a much closer, more intense game as SU was out for blood, hoping to avenge their loss to the Black Knights in the 2010 NCAA Tournament. SU started the game off strong, but allowed Army a chance to rally late in the game. SU held the lead, beating Army, 11-9. 

The next game against the No. 1 Virginia Cavaliers not only brought deserved anticipation, but also a string of nail biters for the Orange.  Although SU took the lead early, the Cavs took advantage of a man-down situation to take over by halftime. SU could not do the same, going 0-for-8 in man-up opportunities. SU scored quickly at the beginning of the half and again at the end to earn the Orange a 12-10 win. SU started their Big East season against arch-rival Georgetown in similar fashion, except this game took an extra period to decide. The OT resulted from a Georgetown rally late in the game, even though the Orange defense did a great job containing the Hoyas, including during man-down play. By the time SU faced No. 9 Johns Hopkins a week later, close games seemed to be the norm. Both teams ran very effective defense, keeping each other’s offense far to the outside. These close contests show that SU has a group of players with good skill sets, but they have not meshed as a unit yet. Legitimate contenders like Virginia and Johns Hopkins might exploit that by isolating the player with possession.  

SU’s classic ‘start strong, finish strong’ strategy proved effective in the games against No. 7 Villanova and Princeton. After a couple of low-scoring middle sections of the games, SU managed to rally in both to scrape up a couple of close victories. No. 3 Duke, however, put up a much tougher fight. After the Orange opened strong with nine goals to Duke’s two in the first half, Duke outscored SU in the second half. You’d think the four Duke goals scored in the third quarter would have been enough to scare the SU defense into high-gear, but the Blue Devils cranked out another five in the fourth quarter and shut out the Orange on defense. The rally proved to be too late, though, as the Orange held on, 13-11. No. 5 Cornell brought out all the little bad habits and poor play by SU in previous games. The Big Red passed and possessed the ball much better than the Orange at the start of the game. Even a second-half rally was not enough to stop Cornell. Groundballs and midfield transitions made the difference in this one. 

As the rankings stand, Syracuse sits at No. 4. After falling from the top seed after their lone loss of the season and with the memory of their upset at last years NCAA Tournament still burning in many of the players’ minds, SU has quite a bit of motivation to fuel its playoff run. You can bet head coach John Desko will focus on improving every aspect of the team’s game, weak or strong, in time for the tournament. To SU’s credit, they have seven seniors going on to play Major League Lacrosse next year: Steven Keogh, John Galloway, Jovan Miller, Joel White, John Lade, Jeremy Thompson, and Josh Amidon. They also boast other strong offensive players who can attack the goal quickly. But this could also be seen as a disadvantage, as a “straight-to-goal” mindset is not effective when dealing with a strong defense. The trick for SU’s attack will be to work the ball around in a quick and controlled manner, hopefully tripping up or confusing the opposing defense to create opportunities for easy shots.

SU struggles with keeping the momentum going and avoiding lulls in their scoring. An early lead can be quickly diminished because someone somewhere on the field lets up their pressure. The Orange seem to have a knack for getting the lead and holding on for the win after falling behind late, but it’s not a good idea to take chances like that in the postseason. They also have to be able to take advantage of and convert in man-up situations. They have to be at their sharpest because everyone other team will be. Coasting by on a few talented attack men and an all-star goalie will not keep the Orange in this tournament for very long. That being said, many of the players on this team are veterans of May, so they know what it takes to get to the top again.