Ange Bradley breaks down the Syracuse field hockey team’s schedule into three separate ‘seasons.’

In the team’s first season – preseason training – the head coach ran her team through exhaustive heat. In its second season – the No. 3 Orange’s Big East schedule – she prepared SU for battle against some of the most physical field hockey teams in the country.

Now, with the Big East tournament looming on Saturday, the team is about to start what Bradley refers to as the third season.

‘The third season is more focused on the spiritual side and the energy and the feeling good,’ Bradley said. ‘It’s the eternal flame we all have that burns, and you’ve got to fine tune that and make sure you’re feeling good about yourself and about what you’re doing.’

Bradley hopes her team’s eternal flame can survive the taxing weekend ahead, as the top-seeded Orange will face Providence (12-8) Saturday at 11 a.m. in the Big East tournament semifinals in Storrs, Conn.

A win against the Friars, whom SU defeated 4-2 during the regular season on Sept. 26, earns Syracuse a berth in the championship game Sunday, where it would face the winner of No. 6 Connecticut (16-2) vs. No. 13 Louisville (14-5). Despite Syracuse’s stellar season, a berth in the NCAA tournament isn’t a guarantee. A successful weekend is a must.

On the verge of the biggest game of the season, uniting a team like the Orange – which possesses a diverse starting lineup of young talent and upperclassmen as well as national and international players – would appear a daunting task.

But Bradley and her staff have done their homework, and in the midst of hysteria have found the right formula to keep the team mentally prepared.

‘I think philosophically it’s more along the lines of Eastern thought than Western thought,’ Bradley said. ‘It’s more process-oriented – like Daoism, that kind of mentality. It’s having the single-mindedness to stay where you are and to not be fearful of the past or the future, it’s just staying on course and taking care of what you’ve done everyday.’

Whether it’s Daoism, or a simple motivational conversation, one Syracuse player has plenty of motivation.Shannon Taylor, a senior midfielder, followed Bradley from Richmond to Syracuse in 2006. After sitting out last season due to NCAA release regulations, Taylor has an entire field hockey career invested in the Big East tournament this weekend.

Syracuse wins, she plays another day. They lose, and Taylor may never competitively pick up a stick again.

‘It’s getting kind of scary and I try not to think about it,’ Taylor said. ‘I try and go into it thinking we’re going to keep winning and whether or not we’re going to win this next game. But it’s just about taking it one game at a time and if we come up short, I want to know that we gave everything we had, and you can’t ask more than that.’

Taylor admitted that there is some added pressure going into Saturday being the team’s captain, but she has spent the week assuring the rest of the Orange that she’s doing everything she can to ensure a victory.

‘I want them to know that I’ll do everything I can to do,’ Taylor said. ‘And if I walk off the field with regrets than that’s on me, and not on my team.’

Another case of potential mental disarray may lie in the Orange’s inexperience. Ten of the Orange’s 11 possible starters are freshman or sophomores, a makeup that Bradley believes leads to ‘overexcited-ness’ in the team’s only defeat of the season, 1-0 to the Huskies.

Bradley is confident, though, that in the team’s third season age will not be a defining factor. Nicole Nelson, a freshman forward and defensive back agreed.

‘Well everyone is such a great help,’ Nelson said. ‘We all help each other out and we all need each other. We’re always there for each other, like I can go to anyone, whether it’s a senior or junior, and feel comfortable.’

Although too much confidence may harm a team’s capability to succeed, Bradley isn’t shying away from boosting her team’s spirit heading into Storrs on Saturday.

‘(Bradley said) that we’re going to win the Big East,’ Nelson said. ‘It won’t be a three-way-tie come (Sunday). And it’s just going to be like that – it’s our goal.’

ctorr@syr.edu

Published on November 7, 2008 at 12:00 pm