Chris Daddio would’ve been satisfied with any first-round opponent.

But matching up with Bryant and Kevin Massa is an extra welcome addition to the faceoff specialist’s ongoing redemption tour.

“I would’ve been happy with anyone, but this is definitely more exciting,” Daddio said. “Obviously, there’s added motivation here going against Massa, who embarrassed us last year. We’ve got to keep this hot streak going.”

Throughout the year, Daddio has taken on six of the country’s top 16 faceoff specialists. Now, if second-seeded Syracuse (11-4, 2-3 Atlantic Coast) is to advance to the NCAA tournament quarterfinals, Daddio can’t let Massa, the nation’s leader in faceoff percentage, lead Bryant (15-4, 5-1 Northeast) to an upset in the Carrier Dome on Sunday at 7:30 p.m.

Massa nearly did just that a season ago, in a nearly identical situation.

“For Massa, he’s got to overcome being overconfident after what he did against us last year,” SU head coach John Desko said. “That’s probably the bigger challenge, in my eyes.”

Massa owned the faceoff X with a record-breaking performance last May, but the Bulldogs lost their grip on an early 4-0 lead and the Orange prevailed.

But the final faceoff tally from that game lingers: Massa 22, Syracuse 1.

“It’s not erased from my memory,” Daddio said. “Just the last, final stat is really the only thing I remember.”

Yet this time around, the Orange’s confidence in Daddio has never been higher.

“There’s no real fear factor about that for us anymore,” SU attack Kevin Rice said. “We know Chris has improved and we’re not going to go 1-for-23 again. We just know that’s not going to happen.”

Although the Orange won just 36.7 percent at the X through its first seven games this year, Syracuse has captured 56.7 percent over its last eight games — with Daddio taking 210 of the 217 attempts.

He’s been able to knock off some of the country’s best specialists in that span. But now he has unsettled business with the top dog himself, who owns a 71.4 faceoff percentage on the season.

But Bryant head coach Mike Pressler said his team can’t go into Sunday’s game expecting to repeat its performance at the X from last year — but the Bulldogs are still shooting for a 60 percent rate in draws.

“For us to imagine that we could do the same thing we did a year ago, we’d be foolish,” Pressler said. “… But at the end of the day, we have to win more than our share.”

Massa started off slowly in Bryant’s play-in game victory against Siena on Wednesday, but clinched 6-of-7 draws in the fourth quarter to help the Bulldogs survive.

The junior also leads the nation averaging 11 groundballs per game, as he doesn’t always need his wings to secure draws.

Massa’s technique isn’t that much different from last year, Daddio said. Just as the SU senior does every game, he will, like Massa, go after the draw with a clamp on Sunday. Even though Massa is successful with the clamp technique, Daddio won’t try to jam him up and create a scramble for the ball unless he has to.

“He’s good at his move,” Daddio said. “Good faceoff guys know their move and they utilize every part of their move as much as possible.

“But it’s more about figuring out yourself and what you need to fix. If you’re winning faceoffs, it’s what you’re doing, not what he’s doing.”

A year ago, Syracuse overcame Massa’s dominance at the X with a deep offense and stingy defense countering the Bulldogs’ extra possessions.

This time around, Daddio is striving to keep the Orange out of that position.

“That’s not going to happen every time, especially against a team in the NCAA tournament,” Daddio said. “I don’t want to have my team to have to be in that situation.”

Asst. copy editor Sam Blum contributed reporting to this article.

Published on May 10, 2014 at 2:50 pm

Contact Phil: pmdabbra@syr.edu | @PhilDAbb