Syracuse women’s lacrosse seniors Caitlyn Dragon, Monica Joines and Courtney Palladino wanted to be ready for Saturday’s home regular season finale with Notre Dame, so they put on their uniforms a little earlier than usual – before they went to sleep Friday night.

The night’s sleep wearing the Syracuse jersey and kilt must have done some good for Dragon, Joines and Palladino. The seniors clearly were focused on winning what may end up being their last game in the Carrier Dome. No. 13 SU consistently looked for its three seniors. More often than not they delivered as the Orange defeated Notre Dame, 14-9.

Syracuse head coach Lisa Miller said throughout the season it was hard to separate her three seniors since they’re all valuable to the program. That was the case on Saturday, as the seniors scored 10 of Syracuse’s goals and kept the Orange (11-4, 4-1 Big East) in the hunt for a NCAA tournament berth and maybe even a first-round home game.

‘They set the tone,’ Miller said. ‘I think they made it clear in the locker room that the game was important to them and they came out and actually did it on the field. The three of them just played phenomenally well. Clearly, it was a very motivated team when they came out of the locker room.’

The Orange buried ND (3-11, 1-4) from its first possession. Joines scored on a free position shot to start the scoring and quickly added two more goals in the first eight minutes.

SU maintained that energy the entire first half, breaking through the Irish defense on numerous occasions for breakaway shots. Palladino scored both her goals on breakaways and she had a potential third goal bounce off the post only to have Joines scoop the rebound for an easy score. The two goals ties Palladino’s career high.

Dragon also went in on the action, scoring a team-high four goals and continuing her surprising standing as SU’s leading scorer this year. She has 48 points this season, almost seven times the amount of career points she had entering this year.

The motivation didn’t stop at just the seniors. The underclassmen understood the importance of the game not only to the seniors, but also to the Orange’s postseason hopes.

‘It’s been something that’s been in everyone’s heads,’ said Syracuse sophomore Jill DePetris. ‘I wanted to win for my teammates.’

SU and ND were even in every statistical column except for goals. The Orange only took five more shots than Notre Dame and Syracuse had the advantage in draw controls by only one.

In the end, the Orange looked like it had more to play for. With Syracuse’s postseason fate hanging in the balance, it didn’t want to say goodbye to its three seniors quite yet. A loss to Notre Dame would’ve seriously damaged SU’s chances to play in the NCAA tournament.

But Dragon, Joines and Palladino didn’t want to think about that and took matters into their own hands.

‘A lot of the responsibility on this team falls on very few kids.’ Miller said. ‘This group of seniors has their act together. They’re good students, they all have jobs or they’re going to grad school. They’re all committed to the success of the program. They’re just a great group of kids. I’m gonna miss them.’

Published on May 1, 2005 at 12:00 pm