His right hand held a lacrosse stick, which he twirled in looping, clockwise circles. His left was placed firmly on his hip.

For a moment, Gary Gait thought silently. The SU head coach tried to assess his team’s first real competition of the year — a scrimmage against England’s national team.

‘I thought for that early in the season, it was what we needed to do,’ Gait said. ‘It was a chance to get out there and play against a real team, real competition, a very athletic team. I thought we played OK, not great. It was more of just execution than anything else, but it gave us things to focus on.

‘Without that opportunity, we’d be starting the season kind of blind.’

But after that crucial tune-up, Syracuse has its sights set on the upcoming season. Although the Orange allowed the game-tying goal in the final seconds of the Jan. 28 scrimmage against England at the U.S. Lacrosse Champion Challenge in Orlando, Fla., it got its first live action of the season. As SU prepares for its season-opener against Boston College Feb. 21, the team is making adjustments based on its weaknesses shown in the scrimmage.

Playing against an older, more experienced Team England, SU got a taste of international competition. The Orange nearly pulled out a victory, even in the absence of junior attack Michelle Tumolo, last year’s leading scorer, who was playing for the U.S. women’s team that weekend.

Gait provided his team little tactical advice entering the game. Rather than running plays this early in the season, he let his players freelance. He said that strategy led to some disorganization, a general lack of control and a failure to consistently maintain possession of the ball.

Even so, SU managed nine goals, and when Gait did draw up a play with under a minute left in regulation, the Orange executed. Junior defender Becca Block scored to put Syracuse ahead 9-8, but England answered.

‘That was an extremely positive thing, to have something that we worked on, executing a play,’ Gait said. ‘So that was a positive out of it. But the other side is we turned around, won the draw and gave it back to them.

‘We gave them a chance, and they scored with two seconds left to tie it. So we’ll learn from that, and something we’re working on is how to finish a game and how to possess the ball when we’re up.’

In a game that didn’t count toward the schedule, it was the perfect opportunity to learn that lesson.

But SU still has more to work on than just closing out games. Senior midfielder Sarah Holden said the team’s transition defense and communication could improve.

Though full-field practices at both Manley Field House and the Carrier Dome helped SU practice its transition defense throughout the preseason, Holden said the team was not prepared for the speed and size of England’s players.

She and senior defender Janelle Stegeland agreed that England was better conditioned and used that to exploit SU’s weakness on defense.

Though none of the Orange’s opponents this season have players in their late 20s to early 30s, as Stegeland said England did, Syracuse left Orlando knowing it needed to get in better shape.

‘They ran like crazy,’ Stegeland said. ‘Up and down, up and down, and it’s not necessarily that our fitness was not totally there, but we’ve been working on since then, getting our fitness up to par so we don’t ever have to be tired in games.’

With the Eagles’ visit to the Carrier Dome less than a week away, Gait’s squad will have an opportunity to see if the hard work has paid off.

Holden said the Orange is excited to get back on the field and compete.

But this time, it counts.

‘England is definitely in the past, so we’re looking to get right up, and get ready and geared toward BC,’ Holden said.

sebail01@syr.edu

 

Published on February 14, 2012 at 12:00 pm

Contact Stephen: sebail01@syr.edu | @Stephen_Bailey1