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Syd Taylor stretched her left foot out and kicked Immie Gillgrass’ shot away. Then, Taylor hustled to the left post to cut off the rebound angle. 

Seconds later in the first quarter against Wake Forest, she kicked another ball to the left. Again, she hustled to the right side of the cage and laid out, extending her stick and pushing the ball into a Wake Forest player’s foot to force a foul. 

As the buzzer for the end of the first quarter rang through Kentner Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Taylor walked off to the sidelines with a career-high five saves. For Taylor’s mother and high school field hockey coach, Doreen Taylor, the performance was no surprise. “I always knew she was capable of that,” Doreen said.

Back at Coatesville (Pennsylvania) High School, Syd had more than 1,000 career saves in three seasons as a starter. Doreen said her daughter had 51 saves in one game, and 47 in another. Because Coatesville wasn’t a top-ranked team, Syd routinely faced a high volume of shots, including many from forwards and midfielders who now play Division-I field hockey. 

The experience prepared Syd for this season, her first as a starter with the Orange. Through six games for Syracuse (3-3, 2-2 Atlantic Coast), Syd has recorded 21 saves, including a career-high seven against Wake Forest on Oct. 19. The performance, where she held the Demon Deacons scoreless for 47 minutes, earned the junior NFHCA and ACC defensive player of the week awards. 

Syd Taylor waited two years to become the starting goalkeeper for Syracuse field hockey. Corey Henry | Senior Staff Photographer

Last season, Syd was set to take over the starting role following the departure of previous starter Borg van der Velde. As the only goalkeeper on the roster during spring of 2019, Syd was the projected starter, playing in every game of the Orange’s spring tournaments, Doreen said. 

But then Sarah Sinck arrived, starting in the cage for 17 of 19 of SU’s games. Though Syd split time with her early in the season, the split wasn’t even — favoring Sinck — and Syd finished the season with just four saves. 

“It was difficult just because … I had been by myself and then a new goalie (came in),” Syd said. “But it was just a really good competition overall, just fighting for the starting spot.”

Syd never lost her composure with teammates at Coatesville, despite playing with weaker players, many of whom only picked up a stick between August and mid-October for high school season. She got frustrated about goals conceded, Doreen said, and it took her years to accept that she had to move on post-game instead of blaming herself for not being able to stop every shot. Even in games where she faced over 50 shots, she always maintained patience, something that’s stuck with her at SU. 

“She took it as a challenge to make sure that she (was) doing her part to have the team win the games they could win,” Doreen said.

In high school, Syd learned to be more aggressive — she had to be more of a “go-getter,” facing so many shots. In one-on-one situations, the most important thing is to “delay, delay, delay,” Syd said, to allow the defense to recover. Her mom said Syd is also good at staying focused on the ball instead of getting caught up in the opponent’s body movement.

Prior to the Virginia series, Syd worked with associate head coach Allan Law on defending one-on-one, two-on-one or three-on-one chances, Doreen said. One-on-ones are Syd’s favorite part of the game, she said, because it’s a test of whether she can outplay the attacker.

“Her best attribute — I don’t know how else to say it — is hunting them down,” Doreen said. “Her ability to just follow them around and know when to strike is pretty much it.” 

Growing up, Syd played flag football in sixth grade and was interested in transitioning to tackle. Her parents said no to football pads, instead giving her field hockey goalie ones. She’s played goalie ever since. The position was also convenient because Syd, the middle sibling, saved shots as her older and younger sister — who both played field hockey — went head-to-head, Syd said. 

“We would just hit around, and it was just fun (to) learn new skills, different things that you want to incorporate into your game when you’re just fooling around,” Syd said.

Syd’s father built a cage out of PVC pipe which Doreen used to help train Syd when she was younger. In the front yard of their Coatesville house, Syd’s mom would roll balls to either side of the cage to work on diving saves. She pushed Syd to “get up quick,” and get to the other end of the cage in time to make the next save. 

Syd also attended private sessions with X-Calibur club coach Brian Hope and others where she worked on her fundamentals, including angles and positioning, through repetition of simple drills. They used a ball machine — much like a pitching machine for baseball — that fired balls at Syd and the other goalkeepers to improve reaction times, Hope said. 

Syd is still working on positioning, though. Now, she watches film to try and gain as much of an understanding as possible. But at a younger age, Doreen remembered tying rope to the goalposts and having goalkeepers walk around the circle while holding it, a drill that helps visualize angles and positions.

“That helps them learn where they should be standing in relation to where a ball is coming, so that they can always get to that ball, or they’re blocking the biggest part of the cage,” Doreen said.

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Against Wake Forest on Oct. 19, Syd charged forward for a one-on-one against Grace Delmotte early in the first quarter. Delmotte cut to the right, and Syd, well outside her cage, left a wide-open net. But she had also trimmed down the Demon Deacon attack’s shooting angle, forcing a cross that got intercepted by an SU defender. Experience and awareness of where you are on the field allowed her to make a play like that, she said.

“We just work on angles, angles, angles,” Syd said. “It’s just being familiar and comfortable in your circle and in your cage, and just being able to move off of that to be able to make the save.”

Before every game, Doreen texts Syd words of encouragement. The messages vary, some saying “Go out there and kick butt,” or “You got this,” or “Good luck,” but one theme was consistent: ”Play your game.”

Doreen always knew that her daughter had the skills to put up a performance as complete as the one against Wake Forest. And after two years of waiting for the starting job, Syd showed everyone what her mom always knew: That she could play her game.

Published on October 26, 2020 at 11:21 pm

Contact Roshan: [email protected] | @Roshan_f16