Laura Hurff ran over, set down her practice jersey, stick and banana and extended her hand. The sophomore midfielder hasn’t stopped running all season since she finished first in the team’s 2,000-meter fitness test.

Freshman Roos Weers, who plays behind Hurff at back, said Hurff’s speed and seeming inability to feel tired helps stop opposing offenses.

“I don’t like (practicing against her),” Weers said. “She’s running a lot. Running is not my strongest part. … If we are on the line, I always try to keep someone in front of me (in line) so I don’t have to go against her.”

Hurff runs into the postseason faster, stronger and without the lingering injures which bothered her during the 2014 postseason, due to a changed diet and extra workouts. This time around, the Newark, Delaware native has switched positions, playing midfield as she did in high school. The Orange begins postseason play on Friday at 1 p.m. in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament in Charlottesville, Virginia. After a first-round bye, No. 1 seed Syracuse (16-0, 6-0) will play the winner of Duke-Virginia.

When the Orange beat Virginia 3-1 on Sept. 25, teammates said Hurff was instrumental in holding one of the nation’s best midfields scoreless.

“Laura’s one of the fastest and fittest people I’ve ever seen,”said teammate Alma Fenne, who played at the highest level in Europe. “She’s nice to have at the left midfielder because …no other girl can run at her and pass her because she’s always faster than the opponent.”

Head coach Ange Bradley never even thought of Hurff as a midfielder until seeing her attack and “shed layers” at the position with Team USA’s U-21 team in the summer. She realized Hurff, who played forward freshman year, had potential elsewhere; especially considering SU lost two of its top midfielders from 2014, Lieke Visser and Kati Nearhouse.

During preseason, Bradley mixed Hurff into drills with the midfield. She never left.

Hurff went into Manley Field House for the extra, 90-minute workouts on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Under the direction of assistant strength and conditioning coach Corey Parker, she did lifts, leg work and arm work. In 2014, Hurff played the postseason at less than 100 percent with an ailing lower back, tight legs and sore hip flexors.

“It didn’t stop me from performing, but wasn’t helping, obviously,” Hurff said. “(The extra lifts) have helped my body feel OK throughout the season and not having — knock on wood — any of those kinks as much as I did last year.”

Hurff also switched up her diet, eating only natural peanut butter and smoothies or oatmeal for breakfast. She became more conscious fueling her body.

Hurff now controls the ball and often the flow of the game, distributing from the backs to the forwards. She cringes at the memory of watching tape of her freshman games, when she’d gain possession and feel “frantic” to do something, anything with it.

Throughout the season, Hurff has learned to read situations and discern when to push the ball forward and when to drop it to the backs and slow the pace.

“When she gets the ball, she brings (calm) to the play,” Weers said. “She brings chill on the ball. It’s why she’s so good.”

Hurff’s speed translates in the offensive zone as well. She passes defenders with the “throw-go,” a move used in one-on-one situations when the offensive player throws the ball into space behind the defender then runs to collect it.

It’s Hurff’s signature.

Usually the move is used to free up Hurff so she can pass to forwards who sprint toward the goal like she used to. She misses that part of playing forward, she said. But now she dictates the tempo and slows some of the country’s best offenses.

“Oftentimes, you don’t even see (Hurff’s contributions),” Weers said. “Sometimes she’s invisible. But invisible in the best way.”

Published on November 4, 2015 at 9:09 pm

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR