Women's Lacrosse

SU’s Kayla Treanor struggles to adapt to different defensive looks

Logan Reidsma | Asst. Photo Editor

Syracuse's Kayla Treanor has scored nine goals in her last seven games after scoring 21 in her first five games. She's been facing defenses that are focused on her.

Kayla Treanor is overthinking.

That’s what Gary Gait, the Syracuse head coach, said about one of the top scorers that he’s ever worked with. When the defense throws something new at her, he said his star player takes too long to figure out how she will counter that move.

“The worst thing you can do is let them get in your head and let them frustrate you,” Gait said.

Over the past two seasons, fellow All-American Alyssa Murray forced the opposition to pay attention to both her and Treanor. But as the only proven star on this year’s team, Treanor doesn’t have anyone else to consistently distract defenses.

She ranked second in Division I with 79 goals last season, often seeing a face guard before she gets the ball and a double team after.



“It hasn’t really happened in prior seasons,” Treanor said.

She still leads the No. 7 Orange (8-4, 1-2 Atlantic Coast) in goals, but after scoring 21 in the first five games, Treanor was held scoreless in four of the next six. SU hasn’t lost more than four regular-season games in a season since 2011 and its success in the second half of this year could depend on the team’s most dangerous scoring threat.

Since Treanor has faced so many different looks from defenses all focused on stopping her, Gait said it’s slowed down her game.

“She gets the ball, then she’s like, ‘OK, set up a dodge’ and by the time all that happens, there’s a double and pressing out,” Gait said, “and she’s got to move the ball again.”

Though opposing defenses have slowed Treanor down, she says it’s given teammates more opportunities. If she can’t avoid a double team, Treanor looks to pass to whomever’s open.

But so far this year, Treanor has only nine assists and through the same number of games last season, she had 23.

“They’re just throwing everything at her,” attack Halle Majorana said.

After Boston College held her to no goals, shots and assists about a month ago, Eagles head coach Acacia Walker said she recognizes Treanor as one of the best players in the country. That’s why nearly BC’s entire game plan was centered on stopping her, Walker said.

The blueprint to shut down Treanor exists now and it’s been used repeatedly.

“It’s a tough thing to be face guarded and it can get frustrating,” Murray said. “But as they go on and play more teams that are going to do that to them, they’re just going to get more used to it and be able to figure out how to execute their plays.”

At Niskayuna (New York) High School, Treanor was face guarded and double teamed throughout her junior and senior years, but it didn’t affect her as much as it’s affecting her now. Before college, she played midfield, which meant she could use the entire field to lose her defender.

And even then, Treanor wasn’t the only capable big-time scorer on the field, Niskayuna head coach Peter Melito said, as she played with a handful of future Division I players.

While Gait recognizes Treanor has been less effective than in the past, he said he doesn’t want to “hyper-focus” on her. Instead, the goal is to create a balanced offense.

“We can get easier opportunities for our teammates to score,” Treanor said, “so I think it’s been a good thing for our team and we’re getting easier and more wide-open goals.”

Gait said last week he decided to make the offense more structured, meaning less opportunity for poor decisions with the ball.

Since then, Syracuse lost to No. 4 Duke, but Treanor scored three goals.

“We’re breaking down the opportunities, we’re mixing up some things on the offensive side,” Gait said, “and hopefully we’ll get everybody involved and (Treanor) back on track.”





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