The night before Emma Russell came to America, she felt nervous.

The move from tiny Ireland to “massive” America and the leave from her family, which she’d never been away from for a long stretch before, was daunting to her.

She’d made the difficult decision to move partly because in Ireland, she’d have to choose her career sooner to attend university. In the States, she could take different classes and keep options open. She also wanted to play field hockey at the highest level.

“Still, I was terrified,” she said.

Since arriving at Syracuse, Russell has been prolific. She’s started 68 of her 73 games, finished either first or second in goals scored in the past two seasons and led her team to the 2014 national championship game. On Sunday at Yale, Russell set the Syracuse all-time scoring record with the 48th career goal.

But before adjusting to America, becoming the team’s leader and practical joker and making the SportsCenter Top 10, Russell was just a scared 18-year-old. Her parents had traveled to America to help her move in, but their comfort was only temporary.

“The first two days were definitely hard,” Russell said. “When you’re coming in for the first time, preseason is hard. And you’re homesick. Stuff adds up.”

Russell found comfort in talking to Liz McInerney and Gillian Pinder, two Irish teammates on the field hockey team. She sat with head coach Ange Bradley and talked about the different phrases to use on the field. Some girls referred to the team as a family, but Russell felt skeptical she could ever feel that way.

Russell eased into routine of preseason training camp. Three weeks later, classes started. By then, the 19 girls she’d been training with had become a support system. They showed Russell where to go for classes, studied and ate dinner together.

Russell scored her first-career goal 4:21 into her first-ever game. Eight days later, at home in her third collegiate game, Russell netted the overtime game-winner to beat North Carolina, then the No. 2 team in the nation.

“She’s willing to sacrifice short-term for the long-term gains,” Bradley said.

Though Bradley meant it in the context of Russell’s training — getting up at 5 a.m. during winter for early training and staying in the night before games — it followed the trajectory of her willingness to adapt to a new lifestyle.

Russell, who is shy at first, Bradley said, eased into club and country. She sings and dances randomly at practice. She plays pranks on teammates, once trying to convince goalkeeper Jess Jecko that she came to America to hide from pop star fame in China.

She once told teammates Liz Sack and Sarah Kerly that a highlight of them appeared on ESPN, but she was playing a practical joke. Instead, she showed a video of the two of them hitting each other while trying to make a tackle.

When Sack told Russell she made ESPN last year while they were sitting in a hotel for the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, Russell thought it was payback.

“She said, ‘No. I’m being serious,’” Russell recalled. “And then Ange told me. We watched it on the TV at the hotel. Honestly I didn’t know what SportsCenter was.”

Russell emerged as a leader. She took charge on the field and supported her teammates off it. When Lies Lagerweij did not travel with the team because of injury in 2014, Russell texted Lagerweij to check on her.

“When there’s tension and I’m frustrated, she’s one to crack a joke,” forward Emma Lamison said. “Then I don’t feel as bad.”

Bradley named Russell a captain this fall.

This year, Russell lives with Sack and Lagerweij. Manley lives a “two-second walk” away. Last Wednesday, Russell had class with Lagerweij, then the two went to Schine Student Center, sitting and eating for two hours. Then the team practiced for four hours. Russell ate dinner in her apartment with Lagerweij, Sack, Manley and Zoe Wilson.

This season is Russell’s last for Syracuse. She’s no longer the terrified 18-year-old girl who moved to America on a hope that she’d find what she wanted to do while playing field hockey.

This season, the Orange, for the first time since 2012, has a redheaded freshman from Ireland on the roster. Her name is Zoe Wilson.

Wilson and Russell talk about home often; mutual friends, comfort foods and what they’d do for a Sunday roast.

“Since freshman year, I’ve grown up a lot,” Russell said. “I was away from home, but…the two Irish girls on the team (my freshman year) helped me a lot.”

It’s been four years since she had that help. Now she’s trying to do the same.

Published on September 21, 2015 at 7:53 pm

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR