One of the fastest players for Syracuse won four outdoor track state titles in high school. Instead of running collegiately, Jennifer Bleakney opted to use her speed for field hockey.

“She can run forever,” SU head coach Ange Bradley said. “She has an elite engine.”

Before 2017, Bleakney was a forward on a national championship winning team. She transitioned to midfield for her junior season and has boosted her offensive output for No. 6 Syracuse (8-1, 1-0 Atlantic Coast). Through eight games, she already has a career-high four assists and her four goals are two shy of her sophomore season total, in fewer than half as many games.

The seamless transition is in large part because of Bleakney’s strong running ability — she ran a 4:58 1600-meter race her senior year in high school. Add in her effectiveness in close quarters, which she credited to her experience as a forward, and she’s become a top threat for SU.

On Sunday against then-No. 24 Rutgers, Bleakney set-up in an attacking midfield position as Laura Hurff fed her a hard pass. With a defender closing in on her back, Bleakney received the pass and spun around the defender. She ran with the ball into the arc and fired a right-hand shot that clanged against the back of the goal.

“I think there’s more space to move around in,” Bleakney said of the midfield. “I just like being in the middle and making decisions in the midfield rather than up front.”

SU’s midfield has limited opponent’s movement through the center of the field. Bleakney has joined Hurff, Erin Gillingham and Florine Hogendoorn in the midfield unit that’s rarely given the opponent a chance to test Syracuse’s backline.

Gillingham, a senior midfielder who has started in every game this season, has eased Bleakney’s transition.

“Just playing off of her and making sure my movements are sharp and crisp,” Gillingham said. “(If I do that) she has an easier transition into the midfield.”

Bleakney still wants to improve vision despite totaling a career high in assists. It still has been difficult to know where to pass the ball after receiving it, she said. As a forward, the link-up play involves other forwards in and around the circle, she added. Now, she plays in relation to both of SU’s forwards and backs, finding the best passes to move the ball up the field.

Learning the patterns of midfield movement has also come as a struggle for Bleakney. After spending much of her first two years grasping the forward movement Syracuse employs, she has had to learn a whole new system.

“Forward movement is hard in itself,” Bleakney said. “It took a lot of time to learn that and then learning where the midfielders go and how to move off of our defenders is something else entirely.”

The midfield has been an integral part in Syracuse allowing just two goals in nine games, with both goals coming against Wake Forest. Two first team All-American backs, Lies Lagerweij and Roos Weers, garner much of the credit for that performance. But it’s the midfield that presses quickly whenever Syracuse turns the ball over, often winning possession back. Bleakney, a convert to the position, has been a part of that.

“If she continues on the path and relaxes,” Bradley said on Aug. 31, “I think she’s gonna have a great season and take us a long way.”

Published on September 19, 2017 at 11:59 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3