Lies Lagerweij’s mother, father and sister traveled from the Netherlands to Syracuse and didn’t even expect Lagerweij to get on the field.

But in her first game back after tearing her posterior cruciate ligament in early September, Lagerweij played center back against Duke on Saturday, a position she had never played before, which stressed her family out.

“All three (of us) were thinking. ‘Oh my god, she cannot do that, because she has always been lazy to be defense,’” Hanneke van Zoelen, Lagerweij’s mother, said.

But Lagerweij starred in Syracuse’s 2-1 overtime win over No. 6 Duke on Saturday and played all 71 minutes. The No. 10 Orange (12-4, 2-4 Atlantic Coast) defense, anchored by Lagerweij, held the Blue Devils to only four shots. Then on Sunday, the freshman played center back again and scored two goals off penalty corners in a 4-0 win over Bucknell while holding the Bison to only two shots.

Lagerweij played forward her whole life, but due to an injury to freshman center back Annalena Ulbrich, head coach Ange Bradley asked her to fill the role. Ulbrich has missed the last two games and is currently day-to-day. In the meantime, Lagerweij has excelled.

“Honestly, I don’t know a lot about defense,” Lagerweij said.

When the idea of playing defense was brought up to Lagerweij this past week, she asked her coaches if they would tell her what to do. She said SU assistant coach Allan Law said no, because they wanted to see how she would adjust on her own.

So far, it’s worked for the Orange. Syracuse didn’t allow a single penalty corner to Duke or Bucknell and only gave up six shots in the two games.

“Adjusting our defense in a matter of a week was incredible for us to do,” forward Laura Hurff said.

After the Duke game, both Hurff and goalkeeper Jess Jecko described her performance as “amazing.”

But her career as a center back got off to a less than stellar start. Just 35 seconds into the game, the Orange’s back line broke down and Duke scored after a scramble in front of the cage.

“For me personally, I was a little overwhelmed with the defensive structures and everything since I’ve never done that before,” Lagerweij said.

Against Bucknell, Lagerweij got back into her comfort zone with two goals. For the past seven years, Lagerweij has been involved on offense with penalty corners.

Scoring goals is what Lagerweij said she missed most about field hockey during the rehab process.

“She always wanted to be in the front and go with the ball on her stick and hop, hop, hop, score, score, score,” van Zoelen said.

The reason Lagerweij has been able to fit in on defense right away is because of the team’s mentality, Bradley said. Her teammates trusted that she could step in and do the job.

Throughout the rehab process, Lagerweij said she leaned on the support of her teammates as she returns the favor.

“They’ve been there for me through everything,” Lagerweij said, “… so I said, ‘if this is what I can do back, I’ll do that.’”

Published on October 27, 2014 at 12:06 am

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds