2024 NCAA WOMEN'S LACROSSE CHAMPIONSHIP

May 24, 2024

Kayla Treanor

Delaney Sweitzer

Kate Mashewske

WakeMed Soccer Park

Syracuse Orange

Media Conference

Boston College - 10, Syracuse - 7

THE MODERATOR: We welcome the Syracuse Orange. Head coach Kayla Treanor, student-athletes Delaney Sweitzer and Kate Mashewske. We'll start with an opening statement from Coach.

KAYLA TREANOR: Obviously a really tough one tonight. I felt like we were really prepared going into the game, and we have a really special group of players that were ready to go. It was a tough game. We had some lulls in the second and third quarter.

I really give our team credit for coming back. They were down 8-4 at one point. They had a lot of belief and a lot of fight in them, and they came back and made that a really great game, a really exciting game. I think there's so much belief in the group all the way until the final whistle. Even with 30 seconds left when they called a timeout, I know I had a lot of belief still in the group.

It's always a really tough thing to lose in this moment, especially when you just love your team so much. Nothing should be taken away from this team and what they've accomplished this year. They've had an amazing season. There's been a lot of ups and downs, but they've accomplished so much. They put together really elite performances. They've had a great NCAA Tournament. They're regular season, ACC champions, something our program has never done before.

We have career performances from so many players and record holders from so many different players. I give our senior class and our fifth years just so much credit. I think our culture is in such a great place. The kids love lacrosse, and they love their teammates, and they love school. It just makes coaching there so much fun. These guys just bring so much joy to my life, and I really love them.

We use the word family at Syracuse, and it really is a family. I'm just so proud of our team. It's really unfortunate that we came up short tonight, but nothing should be taken away from this group and how special they were. They just had a great season. We've had great leadership and great underclassmen. It's just been a really great year.

Then the other thing I'd really like to touch on is just our coaching staff with Abby Rehfuss and Caitlin Watkins and Jason Gebhardt and Chelsea Leveille. They just poured their whole heart and soul into this program and into these players. I told these guys, but they're really my best friends and family. I love them so much. As much as it hurts to lose, just being on this journey with the coaches and the players makes it all worth it.

So credit to BC for a really great game tonight, but overall really proud of our team and this year.

Q. Kate and Delaney, could you walk us through how you were able to keep spirits so high heading into that fourth period. You came out to a 3-0 run. How you were able to stay in it mentally?

KATE MASHEWSKE: Like Coach said, our team, we really believe in our coaches and our game plan going in the game, and we really believe in each other. Obviously until that final whistle blows, we always are thinking we're the best and we're going to win. I think that definitely helps us spark some energy.

This game is a game of runs, so just believing in each other, sticking together. Like Coach said, we're a family out there, so always having each other's backs, so it's just next play.

Q. Was there anything that a teammate or coach said or did in that fourth period that really kind of gave you guys energy?

DELANEY SWEITZER: Not necessarily. I would just say that I think at the end of the day we try to be neutral and keep the same energy the entire game. We know it's a game of runs, and I think the energy was high the entire time from the bench to the field. Obviously like Kate said, we had a lot of belief in each other.

To the last minute, we were going to play. I mean, we did come up short, but we fought till the last.

Q. Coach, was there anything offensively that you saw, the struggles that they had kind of in those middle quarters and how you turned it around for that fourth quarter to start off strongly?

KAYLA TREANOR: Well it's tough because the second quarter felt like we didn't really have the ball much offensively, and if we did have possessions, they were really short. Then in the third quarter we got in a lot of trouble with our card situation. I think just some turnovers that we were having. We were just changing in and out of offenses throughout the game too.

I give the players a lot of credit in the fourth quarter. I think it was just they were really determined. They made it work, and they were aggressive. They didn't want their time to end, so I give the players a lot of credit.

Q. You mentioned foul trouble in the third period. Can you explain what you were told about that illegal substitution call? It seemed like there was a lot of confusion on the field in that instance.

KAYLA TREANOR: There was two cards on the field, and the referees gave us a third for saying that we had an additional player that was on the field, which she was in the box. So she was not on the field.

Q. For either of the players -- Delaney, you transferred here from USC, and Kate, you grew up in upstate and came to the team that you grew up watching -- it's going to be hard to not think about this, but for how far your team has come over the last few years with a new head coach as well, what are you going to remember not tonight or tomorrow, but when you look back on your careers the most with the blue and orange?

KATE MASHEWSKE: It's definitely the people who make the place. It's great to win, it's why you play the game, but at the end of the day -- I can probably speak for Delaney too -- I'll forever be in debt to the Syracuse women's lacrosse program. Kayla, she's changed my life this past year. Coming back from injury, it was tough, and she always had my back.

DELANEY SWEITZER: Yeah, I'm really grateful to be orange, any part of the orange family. I took a chance on myself when Kayla was coming in as the head coach, and it was the best decision of my life. I have my best friends by my side win or lose. So I'm just really grateful that I got to be part of such an amazing program and play lacrosse -- play the sport I love with my best friends every day.

To our coaches, we had the best coaching staff, no doubt. I'm forever grateful, and I feel a solid debt to this program.

Q. What is it that BC does defensively, even when things might be going well for your side, what is it that BC does defensively that makes them a little tougher to solve? Especially with Shea particularly played well too. When two goalies are playing well, it makes it even tougher.

KAYLA TREANOR: They're just a really good defensive unit. They typically put their best athletes on defense, and they're really athletic. They run a style of defense that they pressure the ball, and they want to cause turnovers. They're backed by a really good goalie. It's just a really good defensive unit.

Q. Coach, you're losing a lot of players. What are you going to miss most about this group specifically, the players that have been here?

KAYLA TREANOR: It's really hard because we have a class that we're graduating, where we're graduating so many fifth years, and we're also graduating so many seniors. So it's two very different classes. We have an older group that came back for a fifth year to have a chance to compete again and a senior class that's also so special.

So we have a lot of kids that are moving on, and I just -- it's hard to answer because I think they're all so unique individually. They're just amazing kids. Sometimes I feel like I'm the adult, and I should be inspiring them, but they really inspire me. I know that I want to be a better person because I think these kids are just so special and they're really good people and they come from really good families.

I think what I'm most grateful for is that I get to have them in my life and forever because, like we talked about, it really is like a family. I just -- they make me laugh so much. I mean, their personalities are just incredible. Sometimes I try hard not to laugh so they think I'm serious.

No, I just love them. I love them like family. I'd do anything for them. They're just amazing, amazing kids that have really changed my life.

Q. In your third year as the head coach here at Syracuse, were there maybe one or two things that you thought that you learned last year that you want to take forward?

KAYLA TREANOR: This really isn't about me. It's about these guys that just had such a great year. Yeah, every year I'm trying to learn and get better for them. I really want these kids to have a great experience and have the opportunity to compete at a really high level.