Another year, another Big East tournament for Syracuse. Though reaching this one wasn’t so easy.

Throughout the course of the regular season, this year’s Syracuse team struggled through a three-game losing streak. Lost four of its first five road games. Played six straight games on the road. Now, the Orange has won five straight games.

SU head coach Gary Gait has preached all year about how this was a young team needing to find cohesion in a limited amount of time.

‘We have a ways to go ourselves, you know?’ Gait said. ‘This has been a tough, growing year for us. And we’re hoping that our schedule, certainly the toughest in the country, is going to pay off in the Big East run and hopefully further than that.’

This season marks Syracuse’s fifth straight conference tournament appearance and its third first-place finish in the past five seasons. In the past four years of the event, Syracuse has reached the title game three times and won twice.

Syracuse (10-7, 7-1 Big East) will get a chance to show some maturity on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. when it faces No. 9 Loyola (Md.) (14-2, 6-2) in the semifinals of the Big East tournament in Washington, D.C. Only four teams qualify for the tournament, so the semifinal is also the opening round. The Orange defeated the Greyhounds, 10-9, last weekend in Baltimore and is looking to knock off the familiar foe again.

The Big East is one of eight conferences that receives an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. The field will be selected May 8.

‘We’re going to see teams that we’ve already seen,’ junior Janelle Stegeland said. ‘And I think they’re going to throw different things at us. They’re not going to have the offenses that they’ve had when we played them in the past.’

Georgetown, Syracuse, Loyola and Notre Dame, in that order, make up the four seeds that will compete in the Big East tournament.

Georgetown’s sole conference loss this season came on the road against Notre Dame. The only two Big East games Notre Dame lost this season came against Syracuse and Loyola. Syracuse’s only conference loss came to Georgetown.

And Syracuse will face a Loyola team in the opening round of the Big East tournament whose only two losses came at the hands of the Orange and the Hoyas.

‘I think all four teams are very strong,’ Gait said. ‘But we’ve proven that we can all beat each other.’

Syracuse is coming off a regular-season finale led by senior Tee Ladouceur’s career-high eight points and junior Sarah Holden’s hat trick in a 20-6 win at Villanova.

When the Orange plays Loyola in the opening round, it will be the second meeting between the teams in seven days.

‘I think if you can beat the best during the season, that’s definitely an advantage toward the final four and the NCAA tournament,’ goaltender Liz Hogan said. ‘You’re already strong.’

In their last meeting, Syracuse and Loyola were nearly equal in shots taken, with SU holding a 23-22 edge. Syracuse scored five consecutive goals to break a tie and take a 10-5 lead, and then held on after the Greyhounds stormed back to score four goals to close the gap to 10-9.

One of the biggest advantages for Syracuse in the Big East tournament will be its experience. With seven seniors, eight juniors and 10 sophomores returning from a team that made the final four a year ago, there won’t be any postseason surprises.

But for Syracuse to make another final four run, it will likely need to win the Big East tournament. The Orange has a slim chance to make the NCAA tournament if it doesn’t earn the automatic bid.

SU will need to build off its strong finish to the regular season, rather than its tumultuous beginning, if it wants to leave Washington, D.C., a champion.

‘We will determine where the direction and the model of this team is as the season progresses,’ Gait said. ‘In the end, hopefully, it’ll all move in the direction we’re hoping, and we’ll be looking at the end of the season fighting for a championship.’

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— Staff writer Allison Guggenheimer contributed reporting to this article.

Published on May 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm