In November 2008, Syracuse head coach Ange Bradley couldn’t hold back tears while addressing her team in the locker room.

On a freezing cold day in Louisville, Kentucky, a day so cold that Zambonis were needed to de-ice the field, the Orange lost 3-2 in overtime to No. 2 Wake Forest in the national semifinals. Two seasons after taking over the program, Bradley had led the Orange to its first final four in school history.

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“We played the best season we could have played,” Kim Coyle Wingert said. “I was devastated, but we knew how close we were.”

The 2008 team, which had the three highest scorers in any single season in program history, set the tone of the program that went on to win a national championship in 2015. Since 2008, Syracuse field hockey is 158-41 including three conference tournament titles and four final fours.

Syracuse University will host the 2008 field hockey team on campus this weekend to honor the school’s first-ever final four team. The Orange finished 22-2, winning the Big East championship against UConn. SU Athletics has planned a weekend of festivities, including halftime recognition at the Syracuse-Connecticut football game Saturday and at the SU-Penn game at J.S Coyne Stadium on Sunday.

Nine players from the 2008 roster will be in Syracuse this weekend. The alumni planned a tailgate at Manley Field House, where they’ll meet with current players and coaches and spend time together before heading to the Carrier Dome.

“It’s awesome to see how far the program has come since we graduated,” Wingert said. “We helped put Syracuse up on the map with the best teams.”

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When Tracy Deitrick Beagen first arrived in Syracuse, the school wasn’t an elite field hockey program. Her first season, 2006, SU finished 10-9.

“When I came in before, I thought, ‘OK we’re not that great, but I’ll just have a good time,’” Beagen said. “And I’ll grow as an athlete.”

Syracuse’s transformation into a top field hockey program nationally started in Virginia. At the conclusion of the 2006 year, Bradley left Richmond and accepted the job in Syracuse. Lena Voelmle Landis, then a freshman field hockey player at Richmond, was stunned.

Landis, along with Shannon Taylor and Lindsey Conrad, followed Bradley to Syracuse. They were forced to sit out in 2007 due to a blocked transfer from Richmond, Landis said. In 2008, the players returned. Taylor and Conrad finished as the team’s leading scorers in 2008 with 31 and 21 goals, respectively.

“Ange was known as a very tough coach,” Landis said. “She expected a lot from her players, but I went to Richmond because of her, I wanted to test myself and see if I could play at the Division I level, so I followed her.”

As soon as Bradley entered the program, she ramped up the intensity in practice, especially surrounding fitness, said multiple members of the 2008 team. In her second season, the results showed. The Orange scored 25 goals in its first three games.

Syracuse’s only regular season loss came to UConn, a 1-0 loss at home. When the two teams met again in Storrs for the Big East championship, the Orange prevailed, 1-0, to win the first Big East championship in school history. When the clock expired, the entire team threw their sticks in the air and tackled goalie Heather Hess.

SU went on to beat both Massachusetts and Princeton in the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament. The overtime 3-2 win against the Tigers clinched their spot in the record books.

“We set the path that anything is possible and can be reachable,” Taylor said. “We helped the school gain recognition.”

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The players from that historic team have all moved on with their lives, some of them having kids, getting married and starting careers. But that doesn’t keep some of them from remaining in touch, Beagen said.

Beagen met her future husband at the dinner table during Landis’ wedding. They introduced themselves at dinner, connecting over their shared home state – New Jersey. Beagen’s now-husband, Robby, was a close Naval Academy friend of Landis’ husband, Galen.

Beagen lives in New Jersey now, and even though Landis lives in Arizona, they make time to keep up with one another’s lives, including their newly born children, they said.

After scoring the most goals (31) and tallying the most points (79) in SU history, Taylor continued her field hockey career after Syracuse. She went on to play at the PanAm games, winning a gold medal in 2011. She also competed with Team USA at the 2012 London Olympics. She spent time coaching at both UMass Amherst and St. Joseph’s, and now she works in finance with the Boys and Girls Club of America in Concord, New Hampshire.

Wingert works in the Amazon advertising department, and she’s also a new mother. She coached field hockey after graduating from SU and has coached two current SU players in the past, freshman Tess Queen and junior Stephanie Harris.

For one weekend, a handful of the players will be back at J.S. Coyne Stadium, watching a No. 12 program they helped build.

Published on September 19, 2018 at 8:57 pm

Contact Anthony: amdabbun@syr.edu | @AnthonyDabbundo