On Sunday night, 11th-ranked Syracuse (12-6, 2-4 Atlantic Coast) learned it would head to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to play No. 3 seed Michigan in the NCAA tournament on Saturday. By then, the Orange needs to decide who its third back is if Lies Lagerweij remains at forward. It’s crucial because Michigan scores 3.29 goals per game on the season.

“You know, they’re hockey players, you play the game of hockey,” SU head coach Ange Bradley said. “You don’t play a position.”

Although many of Syracuse’s players have shown an ability to play multiple positions, the Orange maintained a stable backline for much of the season. To begin the year, SU had Lagerweij, Roos Weers and Claire Webb in the back. But once Jamie Martin returned from injury on Sept. 17, Webb shifted into the midfield and Martin joined the two first-team All-Americans on defense. Beginning with Syracuse’s game against Drexel on Oct. 15, though, Lagerweij has been shifted up to play forward, her original position at Syracuse. Webb has remained in the midfield, thus opening a spot on the backline.

“I like having Lies up front, I like having her in back,” Weers said. “For me it doesn’t really matter.”

In its win over Drexel, Syracuse used a few different options in back. Annalena Ulbrich played more minutes than normal and Stephanie Harris played her career-high in minutes, mostly at right back. The following week, in an Oct. 22 loss to Penn, Lagerweij missed the game with an undisclosed injury and regular midfielder Florine Hogendoorn played center back. For its Senior Day victory over Pacific on Oct. 28, Lagerweij again spent the majority of her time at forward, with Ulbrich filling in alongside Weers. And in the first round of the ACC tournament, during a loss to Louisville, Ulbrich again spent time on defense while Lagerweij played up top.

“(The moving pieces on defense) are always part of the D-unit, as we call it,” Weers said. “We take pride in it, we practice with each other … so everybody is used to playing there who played there.”

When Lagerweij, a senior, and Ulbrich, a redshirt junior, were freshmen, Ulbrich started the majority of the season at back only to have Lagerweij move from forward to take her spot after Ulbrich suffered a season-ending injury. Ulbrich never reclaimed her spot after Weers stepped into a starting spot as a freshman the following year. So, Ulbrich hasn’t played much since Lagerweij and Weers became stalwarts on defense for Syracuse.

Hogendoorn was the other player used at center back while Lagerweij wasn’t playing defense. Prior to the game at Penn, Hogendoorn had seen most of her minutes in center midfield. But Bradley and midfielder Laura Hurff felt her performance that day was fine, and Hogendoorn wasn’t unfamiliar with the position.

“She played defense back home (in the Netherlands),” Weers said. “Playing midfield is different than playing back. But it’s just communicating with each other.”

In the four games in which Lagerweij has played just sparingly at back, the Orange has allowed three goals twice and shutout its opponent twice.

The one aspect of the game SU seems to struggle at slightly more without Lagerweij in the back is breaking an opponent’s high press. Lagerweij and Weers whack the ball accurately side-to-side until it can be pushed upfield. But on occasion, especially against Pacific, Ulbrich appeared to hold the ball too long and created a few almost interceptions for Pacific. If the Orange was to beat Michigan and meet up with Louisville for a third time in the quarterfinal, SU would need to handle Louisville’s extreme pressure to compete.

For Syracuse to make it out of the first round of the NCAA tournament, its defensive grouping will need to be solid. Whether by using Ulbrich, Hogendoorn or a new formation, or even reinserting Lagerweij at back, Syracuse will deploy a lineup that hasn’t cemented itself in the last four weeks.

“It’s just getting comfort and chemistry,” Bradley said. “They’ve been training together a lot of them for a long time.”

Carolin Hoffmann, a Syracuse forward, said it on Sept. 20: “Defense wins championships.” The first step for SU toward winning its second national championship will be figuring out who it’ll have playing at back.

Published on November 7, 2017 at 12:48 am

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3