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efore a recent preseason practice, Riley Donahue jogged over to a group of teammates on the Ensley Athletic Center’s turf field. A Syracuse captain for the second-straight year, she situated herself among a sea of blue and white Nike shirts. Music blared through vaulted ceilings and Donahue, clad in an orange long-sleeve shirt, led the team in stretches. In the back of her mind, she tried to move past last season.

On the turf field in Ensley with her teammates, eyes were drawn to her. Her bright orange shirt made it impossible not to stand out, even though she would’ve preferred to blend in. Since committing during her junior year of high school, she transformed from a midfielder on West Genesee (New York) High School’s team to an auxiliary scoring option in one of the best offenses in Orange history.

“She’s not picky about shooting,” said Kevin Donahue, Riley’s father and assistant coach on SU’s men’s team. “She likes the team to score … Individual things don’t mean anything to her.”

Due to the graduation of program-greats Kayla Treanor and Halle Majorana two years ago, 2017 was different. It marked the first time in Donahue’s lacrosse career that she was expected to be her team’s top offensive weapon. The added pressure resulted in her best season. She led SU in points (68), goals (42) and assists (26) for the first time. She was named a Tewaaraton Nominee, an All-Conference Tournament player, and an Inside Lacrosse All-American Honorable Mention.

However, it wasn’t enough to save SU from its worst campaign in eight years. A year in which SU tied its third-lowest win total (15) in the Gary Gait era and suffered its first-ever home loss in the NCAA tournament, a 21-10 thrashing by Boston College.

Donahue has always been a team-first player. Her personality lends itself to her pass-heavy, unselfish style of play. Those around her, from family to coaches, and even Donahue herself, mentioned how seamlessly she can transition into any role within an offense.

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As a junior she totaled 20 more points than her next-closest teammate — Emily Hawryschuk with 48 — and, at her current pace, she’s primed to break into Syracuse’s top-10 point leaders. She knows she’s expected to lead No. 9 Syracuse’s comeback campaign and not only thrive offensively but produce the wins against top-tier teams that eluded the Orange in 2017.

“She’s going to do whatever is asked of her,” Gait said. “… Riley is certainly a go-to player, and she’ll continue to do that.”

Since Gait took over as head coach 11 years ago, the best Syracuse women’s teams were always led by a star. Treanor, Majorana, Tee Ladouceur and Katie Rowan carried the program to the national spotlight and kept it there. Donahue said she believes she can be SU’s focal point without registering as one of the top goal-scorers in the country.

Those star players represent Syracuse’s best years to date, years that will be overshadowed in the era of Maryland Terrapin dominance. Syracuse has lost to UMD 10-straight times, and the Terrapins have ended the Orange’s season four times in the last five years en route to winning three national championships.

In 2016, Gait said Donahue can “quietly play her game and put up some unbelievable numbers,” and she did.

In Donahue’s freshman season, her first-ever as an attack, she was third on the team in goals (28) behind Treanor and Majorana. A year later, she netted 47 goals despite taking 21 fewer shots than Treanor, who led the team with 50 scores. While Donahue’s point total plateaued last year, she said she doesn’t think more points will necessarily lead to more wins.

At West Genesee, Donahue developed the ability to make an impact in lieu of stuffing the box score. As a forward on the ice hockey team, she described herself as a “facilitator.” On the lacrosse field, she was a midfielder who ran the offense like a quarterback. She never led the team in goals. Instead, Donahue would score the goal that swung the game’s momentum, said Marissa Hudgins, a former teammate who has played with Donahue since they were both 6 years old. Hudgins currently plays at Brown.

In the New York Class A semifinals her senior year, West Genesee battled Pittsford and won 10-9 in triple overtime. Daniel Hallinan, an assistant coach for West Genesee, remembered Donahue won three draws in a row, scored back-to-back goals and assisted on a third. The game-winning goal came off a Donahue assist.

“She grew into her ability to be able to know what she had to do in each moment,” Hudgens said.

That skill, Donahue’s lacrosse IQ, came as a byproduct of growing up in a lacrosse-obsessed family. In addition to Kevin, three of her uncles and two of her brothers played for Syracuse. Most recently, her brother Dylan graduated in 2016. Both Dylan and Collin, her eldest-brother, brought her along when they practiced and shot with her afterwards.

Refining her shot in her spare time became Donahue’s norm. After her own high school practices, she took a bucket of balls and waited for her teammates to join her. Donahue doesn’t know if her most important tool, her passing, spawned from always passing the ball around with her brothers, but she admits it didn’t hurt.

“A lot of things are second-nature to her,” Dylan said. “She’s the type of player that can mold to whatever offense she’s in. It’s more of her figuring out where her team needs her to be.”

Gait asked Donahue about a potential switch to attack during her first Syracuse practice and the freshman jumped at the idea. Donahue excelled on the left wing while Treanor sliced up defenses from all over and set records. Last year, Donahue was positioned on the right wing and used her lefty shot to pester defenders and earn free-position shots.

Syracuse won four one-goal games a year ago, and Donahue scored the game-winning-goal twice. Both goals came from the right side of SU’s attack. She showed glimpses of being the go-to player that can carry SU this year. When Donahue went through a shooting slump last season, she called Treanor, now an assistant coach at Boston College, for advice.

Five players scored at least 29 goals and Syracuse ranked as the third-best scoring offense (283 goals) in the ACC last year. That total was fewer than the 314 it put up the season prior, which was the second-highest goal total in the country, when Donahue was a complimentary piece to Treanor and Majorana, and defenses didn’t game plan for the 5-foot-4 underclassman.

In the second half of last season, defenses started to scheme out Donahue by face guarding her. Syracuse wasn’t prepared for the tactic and Donahue grew frustrated. Her ineffectiveness, and the lack of a consistent secondary scoring option, cost SU in its biggest games of the year. Syracuse had 16 matchups against would-be NCAA tournament teams and went 9-7. Those were Syracuse’s only losses in 2017. Donahue racked up 33 points in games in which SU beat a would-be NCAA Tournament team and just 17 in the losses. This year, Syracuse faces all those teams again.

“Players like Riley and Nicole (Levy), they hadn’t been in leadership roles before,” said Halley Quillinan Griggs, a former SU lacrosse player and current women’s editor for Inside Lacrosse. “I think you’re going to see a much more seasoned, veteran-heavy team.”

Both Gait and Donahue said the beginning of the 2018 campaign might feature a “fluid” or “rotation-based” offense with players not sticking to one role. The returning talent and an influx of All-American freshmen will allow Donahue to excel and exploit the duality of her game: dodging near the net and a quarterbacking at the top of the offense.

“I wouldn’t (face guard) anyone on (our) attack,” Donahue said. “… We have so many people that can do a little bit of everything. It can give us more room.”

When Donahue scanned the field last year, she saw a new batch of attackers for the first time in her SU career. This year, she’ll be flanked by familiar faces. Donahue will be surrounded by the likes of Levy, a junior who started 14 games last year; Alie Jimerson, a senior who should be accustomed to SU’s system a year after transferring from Albany; and Hawryschuk, a sophomore coming off a standout first year.

When the season begins Feb. 9 against Connecticut, all SU players will be in white jerseys, yet Donahue will still attract attention. She knows it’s there, she’s used to it by now and she’s confident that it will turn out better for her and Syracuse than it did on the first go-around.

Banner photo by Alexandra Moreo | Senior Staff Photographer

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Published on February 4, 2018 at 9:11 pm

Contact Nick: [email protected] | @nick_a_alvarez