Women's Lacrosse

Haley McDonnell enjoys chance to play for Syracuse after position change

Haley McDonnell was frustrated.

She spent all year working to get on the field, but as a freshman last season she played in Syracuse’s third game and only that.

Senior defenders Natalie Glanell, Kasey Mock and Liz Harbeson would reassure her to keep working hard because her time was coming, but some days all McDonnell could think was, “I just want to get out there.”

“It was frustrating … having to wait it out,” McDonnell said

But then Harbeson, Glanell and Mock all graduated, leaving a hole in SU’s defense.



McDonnell had to walk onto the team, switch positions and spend all but one game last season on the sidelines. But now, she’s started the last six games for SU and will try to continue her success when No. 5 Syracuse (8-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) faces No. 6 Northwestern (4-2) at noon on Sunday in Evanston, Illinois.

“She’s long, lengthy, tough and I think she’s been a good person for us to get into the mix of things,” associate head coach Regy Thorpe said. “… She’s been a big part of getting us pointed in the right direction.”

McDonnell was the star of her high school lacrosse team, leading it in goals as a captain her senior year, but at Syracuse there wasn’t much room.

Going into her post-fall ball meeting with the coaches, McDonnell planned to ask if she should switch positions — anything to get on the field — but Thorpe beat her to the punch.

“Let me take her and give her a shot on defense,” head coach Gary Gait recalls Thorpe saying to him.

Learning the defense was intimidating for McDonnell as she transitioned into her new position for the spring.

“I went in (to practice) with the attitude that this is my opportunity to show why I deserve (to play), not to be pouting about the fact that I was a freshman and I wasn’t playing because that’s college lacrosse,” McDonnell said.

During the summer, she worked on her strength and speed with a personal trainer six days a week, only because he made her take a day off.

She earned significant time in SU’s first four games this year before making her first start on Feb. 25 against Connecticut. She caused four turnovers, the most by an SU player in a single game this season.

“She knows our defense very well,” Thorpe said. “She’s just hungry, she brings it.”

McDonnell brings size to the defense and her stick handling ability from years of playing midfield and attack, and it’s made her an asset on clears.

She’s one of only a handful of SU’s players that can play all the defensive positions, including locking down what Thorpe calls the “high-threat scoring area” in the middle of the field in front of the net.

Though a year ago, McDonnell didn’t expect to be a starting defender for the Orange, Thorpe said she’s fit into the role well.

Said McDonnell: “It’s been quite a whirlwind I guess but I think that last year I never really lost that encouragement … throughout the whole, very difficult year for me.”





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