Prior to the Big East semifinal game on Friday, both teams had their entire rosters introduced, non-starters first. A few of the usual Syracuse field hockey bench players headed the list.

Second-team all-conference selections Lindsay Peirson and Brittany Carriero joined them. First-team selection Joanne Lombard did, too, with Big East Goalkeeper of the Year Betsy Wagner.

All but nine SU players were suspended by head coach Kathleen Parker for violating unspecified team rules earlier in the week. SU lost to the Boston College Eagles, 1-0, in the Big East tournament semifinals.

It wasn’t supposed to end that way.

Instead of the starters, freshman Gloria Nantulya made her first start, as did classmate Brittany Angellella. Meg Ryan and Jessica Lerew were between the Coyne Field sidelines in unlikely starting roles. Marie O’Brien, a redshirt freshman, played her first career minutes in place of Wagner.

BC players looked puzzled. Eagles head coach Sherren Grenese said she’d never seen a team compete two players down, let alone do it in a conference tournament game. And all SU could hope for was a respectable score, as nine Orange players went against 11 regular Eagles starters. No subs. No pity. No mercy rule.

Lindsay Kocher, Leah McKay, Jess Wreski and Meredith Gettel were the only regular starters who had not violated team rules earlier in the week, according to Parker.

So they were thrown to the wolves with the other law-abiding newcomers. Two forwards did the work of three and weren’t subbed out the way Parker’s three-girl platoons worked during the season. Gettel, normally a forward, was forced back to a defensive role.

Forget winning a Big East title – SU just wanted to keep the game close.

‘I’m quite impressed that (Parker) had the courage to do that in a tournament game,’ Grenese said of the suspensions. ‘I think Syracuse played their hearts out. My hats off to them. They just kept working for 70 minutes.’

But SU did more than work. The Orange produced. Instead of packing the season in, Syracuse packed the defense in. The score resembled nothing of a mercy rule, and the Coyne Field crowd was at its largest and rowdiest of the season.

Students mocked the Eagles’ leg warmers and knit hats in the frigid November air. They erupted at each of O’Brien’s nine saves, stomped on the bleachers for every nifty dribbling exhibition from Gettel and every surge of speed that Ryan put toward a breakaway. And the Orange needed the crowd.

‘It sounded like there were 1,000 (people) behind us,’ Parker said. ‘I think it was an incredible help to the kids that were out on the field.’

And with 12 minutes to go in the game, the fans performed the a cappella version of ‘Rock & Roll Part 2,’ aka ‘The Hey Song,’ complete with curses.

They stayed afterward, as well, to applaud a gutsy effort. A group of non-starters, two captains and an unseasoned goalie battled the No. 11 team in the country from within a penalty stroke – the play which resulted in the game’s lone goal – of forcing overtime.

‘We reached a point,’ Parker said, ‘where we had executed the game plan and then all of a sudden we’re in a 1-0 game, which I don’t think any of us anticipated. (Scoring) was one thing that we didn’t ever discuss as part of our strategy.’

Considering that the hang-on-for-dear-life strategy was only implemented Tuesday, SU played it perfectly.

And the suspended players cheered on.

‘Stepping into a position like this,’ O’Brien said, ‘there’s a lot of pressure on you, but having all the support around you gets you through it.’

After the loss, there were tears. But mostly tears of happiness for the relentless performance of nine players. Parker hugged each of them.

‘I’ve never been so proud of a team in my entire life as I am tonight,’ she said.

Syracuse lost, but everyone smiled. They couldn’t help but smile. They came into the game trying to avoid embarrassment and almost left with a chance to play in the tournament’s championship game. Connecticut went on to win the Big East title with a 4-1 victory over the Eagles on Sunday.

‘We knew it was going to be an uphill battle,’ Gettel said. ‘(But) we scared the crap out of them.’

Kocher, particularly, led the unlikely stand. She was the general Friday, making sure the rookies stuck to the game plan. She kept O’Brien’s head up after BC’s Kerri Doherty scored four minutes into the contest. And Kocher did it all without a majority of her senior classmates.

‘For four years, we did everything together,’ Kocher said.

Except stick to team rules and play its last game.

Five seniors watched as their careers ended Friday night. But a group of nine almost kept them alive.

It wasn’t supposed to end that way.

Published on November 7, 2004 at 12:00 pm