Gary Gait wanted to make his team’s strength of schedule better. He felt it would help if they had more quality wins come Selection Sunday for the NCAA tournament.

It worked, lifting the team to an at-large NCAA tournament bid despite the team’s loss in the first round of the Big East tournament.

After a 13-4 regular-season campaign, the Syracuse women’s lacrosse team earned a No. 7 seed in the 2009 tournament, and a home game. The Orange will take on Boston University at 3:30 p.m. Sunday at the Carrier Dome in the first round of the tournament. Gait attributed Syracuse’s higher RPI to receiving the home game.

‘It’s something we work very hard to put ourselves in that position,’ said Gait, the SU women’s lacrosse head coach. ‘You know the coaching staff really focused on upgrading our schedule, and I think that really paid off when it came to seeding time. We increased our strength of schedule dramatically, which moved us up in the RPI with the wins that we did have.’

Gait said even though Syracuse suffered a few more losses than it did last season, the quality wins the Orange obtained on its way to a 7th-ranked RPI put the team in a better position.

The Terriers (15-3) are a familiar foe for the Orange. Syracuse defeated BU 17-8 after facing a two-goal deficit at halftime on March 4. The Terriers come into its matchup with the Orange as the America East Champions for the fifth-year straight.

Senior attack Katie Rowan said she remembered the Terriers being a physical team right away in the two team’s last matchup.

‘I think we’ve worked a lot on some different offenses and clearing, and we’ve grown a lot as a team since the last matchup with them,’ Rowan, Syracuse’s leading point scorer, said. ‘I think it’s going to be a whole different game, or team, for us and for them as well.’

In its favor, Syracuse has gained more experience since the last time BU and Syracuse met. Since the last matchup, the Terriers have played one top 10 opponent. Syracuse has played three.

Rowan said in the past, Syracuse’s strength of schedule had been questioned, but this year’s lineup of opponents made the naysayers quiet. Gait and goalie Liz Hogan agreed that the tougher RPI in schedule has helped the team prepare for the upcoming tournament.

‘I think the hard schedule prepared us well,’ Hogan, who averaged 9.41 goals against in the regular season, said. ‘I think it’s a huge advantage for us. When you go against the best, you can play against the best.’

Hogan said last season’s tournament run helped the Orange gain valuable experience playing under pressure and learning the worth of a tournament game. In 2008, then-No. 1 Northwestern ended Syracuse’s season in the tournament semifinals with a convincing 16-8 win.

‘I think we are in a situation where we’ve played a lot of tough games,’ Gait said. ‘We haven’t walked through our season by any means. We had a couple more losses than we did last year, but that comes from having playing a tougher schedule. …We’ve been through that battle.’

For Rowan, having the home game comes with an added bonus. Syracuse receiving the home game will allow her to attend her commencement earlier Sunday and then play in her last NCAA tournament later that afternoon.

‘We were all so excited – I was especially excited to get a home seed, because I wanted to attend graduation,’ Rowan said. ‘It’s going to be pretty emotional. I’ve been think a lot about graduation coming up and the end, so you know it’s going to be emotional, but at the same time it’s awesome and an awesome opportunity to play in the tournament and I feel so lucky to be out here playing still.’

mkgalant@syr.edu

Published on May 13, 2009 at 12:00 pm