Mark Kocher couldn’t resist. The father of Syracuse field hockey senior Lindsay Kocher literally swept head coach Kathleen Parker off her feet.

Before SU’s game against No. 8 American, family members of the SU field hockey team joined the pregame ceremonies as a part of Senior Day in recognition of the eight departing players on the team. Parents and their daughters high-fived through a lane of players and received a bouquet of orange and white flowers from head coach Kathleen Parker. That’s when Mark Kocher proceeded to lift Parker off the ground with a bear hug.

It was a nice way to honor the accomplishments of Brittany Carriero, Erin Fitzgerald, Lindsay Peirson, Meredith Gettel, Betsy Wagner, Elizabeth O’Hara, Leah McKay and Kocher. But their cheery mood dampened after the game. Syracuse lost 2-1 in overtime to American. But outside of the hugs, kisses and flowers, it helped Parker’s team play more together, something it had lacked the past few weeks.

‘I know we all had it in the back of our mind,’ Peirson said, ‘and the underclassmen want to do it for the seniors.’

‘I think that lifted the energy a lot, which was really crucial,’ Wagner said. ‘You could see it from the second (the game) started.’

The Orange had lost three games to top 10 opponents this year by a combined score of 10-1. But Sunday was proof that SU can win those games, not just compete in them. Syracuse was five minutes from upsetting the visiting Eagles, and it wasn’t a fluke.

‘I thought we did better things today than we have in a while,’ Parker said.

‘There was a lot of emotion for Senior Day,’ American head coach Steve Jennings said, ‘and I think Syracuse has a lot of experience and quality players. Anytime you bring out Senior Day, people are going to come to play and step up. That’s one of those intangibles that you can’t really plan on in a normal event.’

Betsy Wagner said she had a bad pregame warmup, but Jennings would never have known. The senior goalie registered a career-high 15 saves, 11 of which came in the first half. American had 14 penalty corners for the game, and Wagner continuously turned them back, even going airborne and completely parallel with the Coyne Field turf at one point to deny an Eagles score.

‘Their goalkeeper was outstanding today,’ Jennings said. ‘She made a ton of huge saves and I really think their defense was physical and strong the whole game. It limited the number of chances we had so you have to give them a lot of credit for making it real difficult for us to score.’

Published on October 24, 2004 at 12:00 pm