Jen Kasel started all 15 games in goal for the Syracuse women’s lacrosse team last season. One figured she would enter this year as a polished veteran.

But she said it felt like starting all over.

The junior broke her collarbone in an October practice and wasn’t cleared to play until Feb. 9. In starting every game this season, the injury seemed a non-factor. Surprisingly, she said only recently did she feel at ease again. All pain was long gone, it just took longer than she expected to find her groove.

She will be in the net when SU plays two games in three days for the only time this season. The No. 13 Orange hosts Rutgers at 4 p.m. today in the Carrier Dome and visits No. 7 Maryland at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Ludwig Field.

‘I’m just starting to get back into it,’ Kasel said. ‘I’m starting to feel a lot more comfortable and confident in the cage. I was out in the fall so I lost touch with becoming comfortable in the net and knowing where I was.’

That she didn’t feel at the top of her game until mid-April comes as a surprise. She and SU head coach Lisa Miller said at women’s lacrosse media day on Jan. 29 that she would return at full strength. Her father, Bob Kasel, said on March 2 that while his daughter felt rusty in SU’s Feb. 12 scrimmage, the first few regular season games went much smoother for her.

But in actuality, she was still working out kinks in her game during SU’s first eight contests. During that time, she played solidly as the team went 6-2. But SU didn’t play any close games, so her performance was never scrutinized.

‘She’s made huge strides in the last three weeks,’ Miller said. ‘Goaltending is the position where you can get rustiest the fastest.’

The turning point came after she was pulled in SU’s 19-6 win over Brown on March 30. It was the first time all season her uneasiness showed. She allowed four early goals and was pulled for sophomore Bethel Steele. Miller said after that game Kasel had trouble seeing the ball, and while that may have been partly the case, that wasn’t the whole story.

‘After the Brown game we just went back to fundamentals,’ Miller said. ‘Goaltending is about doing the same thing over and over again right.

‘(Miller) is a very smart coach,’ Kasel said. ‘She can see when there’s something a little off. There were things I was forgetting – where I was in relation to the goal, in relation to the ball, in relation to the shooter.’

The type of person that she is, Kasel never brewed over Miller’s decision to take her out of the Brown game. She knew she struggled and that working with Miller would fix her shortcomings.

In the two games after Brown, Kasel made crucial saves in SU’s most important wins of the season – narrow victories at home over No. 14 Cornell and Loyola.

‘One of the reasons I really like her is her consistency mentally and emotionally,’ Miller said.

Today’s game carries a good vibe for Kasel. She hails from Mountain Lakes, N.J., and turned in her career’s best performance in last season’s game against the Scarlet Knights in Piscataway, N.J. She made 23 saves in SU’s 15-5 victory.

She wouldn’t say she felt any extra incentive, but Miller said all four of SU’s players from New Jersey – Kasel, senior Caitlyn Dragon, freshman Allison Furstenburg and sophomore Gaddy Fortune – consider the game a rivalry.

As always in home games against unranked teams, the Orange (9-3, 2-1 Big East) needs the victory against Rutgers (4-7, 1-3). The real test of the weekend comes Sunday against Maryland. The Orange has never beaten the Terrapins (9-5) in seven contests, and Miller said a win would be a big step for SU’s program.

Having Kasel at 100 percent increases the odds of an upset, though senior midfielder Monica Joines said Kasel’s troubles were exaggerated.

‘I never thought Jen was really struggling,’ Joines said. ‘She’s someone that’s extra-critical on herself, so she demands excellence.’

So however much Kasel was affected during the course of the season, she is certain about one aspect of her injury.

Said Kasel: ‘I’m glad it happened in the fall.’

Published on April 21, 2005 at 12:00 pm