Just minutes after a crippling loss that likely ended all postseason hopes for the Syracuse women’s lacrosse team, senior Devon Baer managed a ripple of a smile.

All it took was the mention of her sister.

Baer, a defender for the No. 16 Orangewomen (7-5, 2-3 Big East), squares off against sister Kristen, an assistant coach for Boston University (4-8), when the teams meet tomorrow at 2 p.m. in the Carrier Dome.

Smiles aside, both Baers plan to leave the loving bear hugs for after the game.

“It’s always been pretty competitive between the two of us,” said Kristen, in her first year as a Terrier assistant after a prolific career at Georgetown. “In the back of my mind, I am sure I’ll be thinking about her, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to win.”

Which is exactly what Kristen has done in their previous three meetings — all of which came as a player.

At Georgetown, Kristen started all four years and graduated as the team’s 10th-leading scorer all-time with 81 goals and 113 points.

Among the biggest of those points came in the 2000 NCAA Tournament, when the Hoyas met Syracuse in the first round. GU squeaked by with an 11-10 win, during which Devon and Kristen marked each other as fellow midfielders. Kristen’s goal with just four minutes remaining provided the margin of victory.

Before that game, Kristen’s Hoyas defeated Syracuse, 17-9, and, 16-12, in the 1999 and 2000 regular seasons, respectively.

“She’s done better in the past, but I’m ready to come back at her pretty hard,” Devon said. “We’ve both done our trash talking, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens in the game.”

A whole den of Baers figure to be there to see what happens. Anywhere from 10 to 12 relatives plan to travel to Syracuse for the weekend showdown. Funny thing is, they were already planning the trip before it was announced that SU would play BU. The evening before the game, Devon, a fashion design major, will partake in a senior fashion show.

“It was really unbelievable the way things worked out,” said William Baer, their father. “They both have such busy schedules that they really don’t have much time to see each other. So this was pretty amazing.”

Devon will only agree with her father’s enthusing should Syracuse rebound from its recent slump. Ranked seventh in the nation just three weeks ago, the Orangewomen enter the weekend losers of three of four. The most recent setback came Wednesday, an embarrassing 13-6 decision to No. 6 Cornell.

Nonetheless, the younger Baer harbors no regrets about the decision she made four years ago when she committed to Syracuse.

“When Kristen was a senior in high school and committed to Georgetown, there was a big write-up in the local paper about her,” William Baer said. “And it mentioned whether or not Devon planned to follow in her sister’s footsteps. I believe Devon’s comment was: ‘I’ll be playing lacrosse somewhere, but it won’t be at Georgetown.’ ”

Said Kristen: “I kind of wanted her to do her own thing, so I never really encouraged her to come to Georgetown. I wanted her to be able to build her own relationships and do her own thing, and it’s awesome the way she’s done that.”

Saturday’s game is likely to be the final Baer fight, with Devon soon to graduate and the Orangewomen a longshot to advance to the NCAA Tournament.

Syracuse, though, can still salvage its pride — along with the bragging rights of its starting defensive senior — with a win.

“For the time being, we’re pretty much enemies,” Devon said with a smile. “When we’re playing on different teams, that’s the way it goes. We’re staying on different sides until the summer.”

Published on April 18, 2002 at 12:00 pm