Syracuse women’s lacrosse head coach Lisa Miller remembers having games on back-to-back days often, as a player at William and Mary. During her career, no one thought twice about the schedule.

‘And when we did it, we’d play Maryland and Loyola in one weekend,’ Miller said. ‘They’d always be in the top five.’

The Orange’s weekend road trip may not feature two national powerhouses, but does mark only the fourth back-to-back in the program’s 10-year history – the first in six years.

Coming off an emotional 16-13 win over nationally-ranked Notre Dame, No. 10 Syracuse (4-3 overall, 1-1 Big East) starts a stretch of four consecutive road games against Connecticut at 1 p.m. on Saturday in Storrs, Conn. After the game, the team hops on the bus for an 85-mile ride to Cambridge, Mass., to take on Harvard at 1 p.m. on Sunday.

Since Syracuse already scheduled a game in Evanston, Ill., to take on Northwestern on a Friday, Miller was concerned with her players missing too much class time. The team is also missing classes today when it travels to Connecticut. Because UConn and Harvard are geographically close, the New England back-to-back was the best option.

‘We just couldn’t come to another date with Harvard without the girls missing way too much class time for me,’ Miller said. ‘This is really for academic reasons more than anything else.’

Though Miller does not spend much time in practice focusing on upcoming opponents, she devoted even less time this week. Instead, the Orange rested its legs to prepare for the two upcoming games.

After an unusual day off Monday and a light practice Tuesday – opportunities to relax – the team picked up the pace Wednesday and Thursday. Some of the time normally spent preparing for opponents’ tendencies went to running and other fast-paced endurance drills.

With seven games already played and another full week of practice on the full field, Miller said the team should not even need any extra work. But she made alterations to the practice schedule, anyway, because playing on back-to-backs is something new for her players.

‘These girls are fit, so I’m really not concerned,’ Miller said. ‘This is midseason and they should have their legs under them. If this was earlier in the season, I’d be a lot more worried about this.’

Fitness has been a point emphasis all season long because the Orange’s high-powered offense relies on breakouts and transition opportunities. The midfielders are expected to create turnovers and push the ball downfield before the opposing defense can set up.

The fast-paced attack unit has been successful because it’s been able to stay fresh for an entire 60 minutes. Preparing to run that kind of offensive system for months should only help Syracuse play 120 minutes in a 24-hour span.

‘I’m really not all that worried because we’re a really in-shape team,’ senior defenseman Chelsea Strodel said. ‘I think we can definitely handle it, but it’s also going to be different because we’ve never done it before.’

Both of the Orange’s opponents this weekend are unranked but cannot be overlooked. At 5-1, Connecticut received three votes in the most recent Inside Lacrosse media poll and is a team on the rise. Syracuse has beaten the Huskies all nine times the conference rivals have met, but this year’s team is the best in UConn history.

Syracuse’s reward for a difficult road game is a matchup with a Harvard team coming off a 16-3 drubbing of Quinnipiac. The Crimson has not played since last Saturday and has more than a week to prepare for the Orange. Syracuse has fewer than 24 hours and a good night’s sleep.

‘I really don’t care about back-to-backs,’ Miller said. ‘If you’re a competitor, you don’t want to practice. You want to play.’

Published on March 21, 2007 at 12:00 pm