On Kelly Cross’ career night, no one from her family was there to see it.

As she carried SU’s offense against Florida on March 10, scoring four goals and assisting on another, her parents and sisters watched her younger sister, Julie, play in a Pennsylvania State basketball playoff game.

“We were all sitting there kind of smiling and laughing, ‘Leave it to Kelly to have her biggest game when none of us could be there,’” Dee Cross, Kelly’s mother said.

Although Cross’ increased scoring may come as a surprise to most, it hasn’t to her. A first-line midfielder, Cross has stepped into a scoring role for No. 5 Syracuse (7-2, 1-1 Atlantic Coast) this year, tallying 17 points and surpassing her point total from last season in just nine games.

She replaced her sister Amy, who graduated from SU after starting at midfield for the Orange last season. She can extend a nine-game point streak when SU takes on Cornell (5-1, 2-0 Ivy) in the Carrier Dome at 6 p.m. on Tuesday.

“She spent a lot of in the summer and over winter break working on her stick skills, just like repetition with shooting,” Dee Cross said. “… She indicated that the coaches wanted her to become more of a dodger this year and really learning how to go to goal hard and I think she took that to heart.”

Stepping up after her sister’s graduation isn’t new for Cross. During her junior year of high school — after Amy graduated — Cross led Upper Dublin High School (Pennsylvania) to the state playoffs. In one game, she scored nine goals.

In her family, Cross has always been an observer and soaked experiences in, Dee Cross said, so at Upper Dublin and SU she has tried to replicate Amy.

This season she’s stepped in as a starting midfielder, the same role as her sister. Last season, Amy tallied 25 points in 24 games. This season, Cross has scored at a higher rate, tallying 17 in just nine games.

Over Winter Break, Cross and her sister went to fields at Upper Dublin and worked on shooting. While the two played together at Syracuse, Cross wasn’t getting on the field quite as much, so Amy would give her pointers about what to work on.

“I joked around because she’s not playing anymore,” Cross said, “I made it all about me kind of, just made her feed me good passes, bad passes, kind of anything so that I’d be able to run through the middle and finish anyway I could.”

Against Florida, Cross dodged past one defender and split two on her way to her first goal.

After a draw control with less than 14 minutes left in the second half, she raced down the field and caught a pass for a one-on-one fast break with the goalie, which she finished.

Cross stood wide-open on the left hash of the 8-meter arc while Riley Donahue had the ball on the right hash for a free position in overtime. Off the whistle, Donahue passed the ball to Cross, who rifled the game-winning goal into the net.

Her stick crashed to the ground, her teammates circled her in celebration and a smile spread from ear to ear on her face.

No UF player had seen her. Not until she caught the pass that would assist the game-winning goal.

“I think she’s falling into place well and taking on the role of being a scorer and being a threat,” Amy said. “I think she’s realizing she can make a difference in the game.”

Published on March 17, 2015 at 12:12 am

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