When Maddy Huegel first visited Syracuse it wasn’t for lacrosse.

She toured the athletic facilities and Tennity Ice Pavilion with ice hockey head coach Paul Flanagan before watching one of his team’s games.

“I was in love with it,” Huegel said.

But then she came back again — this time for lacrosse.

“I thought that (lacrosse) was a better chance — opportunity — for me,” Huegel said. “… (a) better chance for a national championship.”

The two-sport star was torn between hockey and lacrosse coming out of high school, but ultimately chose to play the latter at Syracuse. Techniques and skills she developed playing hockey have helped her in areas on the lacrosse field, like winning ground balls and controlling draws.

Huegel’s missed seven games this season due to personal reasons, she said. And after playing as a defender and on the draw circle last season, she’s focused in more on draws as a junior. Huegel will use the skills she developed as a hockey player when she lines up around the circle for No. 9 SU’s (9-6, 2-4 Atlantic Coast) game at No. 14 Louisville (9-5, 1-4 ACC) on Thursday at 2 p.m.

“She’s just got a knack for seeing the ball and getting it into her stick and anticipating the space and where the ball is going to go,” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “She probably learned that from hockey.”

Hockey was Huegel’s first sport. She started skating at 5 and a year later she joined an organized team.

She was the star center on all of her teams and led in points every year, she said. In 2010, she led Lysander Lady Lightning in New York to a state championship.

Huegel loved to deke through defenders in hockey, which has translated into her being able to pick up the ball in a scrum and come out with it still in her stick.

“(Hockey is played in) small quarters,” associate head coach Regy Thorpe said. “… It’s natural to box out and you can take a little bump and still run with the ball,” he added of hockey’s benefit to lacrosse players.

The squats she did mostly for hockey improved her leg strength and her ability to box out opponents on the draw.

The biggest benefit, Huegel said, has been with her form on ground balls. She’s able to smoothly scoop balls off the ground, which comes naturally from her years of playing with a puck on the ice.

“We knew she was a good hockey player, but you never know until they get here, right, what they’re going to do and she settled into a sort of draw specialist,” Thorpe said.

With just two and a half minutes left in regulation and the score tied in an April 7 overtime loss to Notre Dame, Huegel lined up around the circle against Fighting Irish defender Barbara Sullivan.

The whistle blew and SU attack Kailah Kempney popped the ball forward. Huegel shielded Sullivan with her body as Kempney and Notre Dame midfielder Casey Pearsall battled for the ball. It fell behind them and Huegel scooped it up before tossing it back to the SU defense, giving the Orange one last possession.

Huegel played in the final four for Syracuse during her freshman year and started the national championship game loss last season, but only has two more chances to validate her choice of lacrosse over hockey and win a national championship.

SU has just two regular season games before the ACC tournament, then another before the NCAA tournament begins.

“I was such an offensive-minded player in hockey,” Huegel said. “So I think in lacrosse, I just want to get the ball back. That’s why I’m on the draws.”

Published on April 15, 2015 at 9:00 pm

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