A group of Louisville players gathered in the concourse of the Carrier Dome after the team’s 13-10 loss to Syracuse. Maybe UofL’s biggest individual loss that led to its defeat was at the draw circle, where Kayla Treanor helped SU win 16 draws. The Cardinals won nine.

Louisville’s Kaylin Morissette, who has won the most draw controls per game in the country, walked up to a group of teammates and a few parents after the game.

“Keep being strong on the draw,” the parent said to Morissette.

“I’ll do my best,” she responded before posing for a picture.

But most players’ and teams’ best has hardly been enough to beat Treanor this year or ever in her career. On Saturday, Treanor even won 12 draws to herself compared to Morissette’s four. And the senior SU attack piled that on top of her two goals and three assists.

“Today I looked at, a couple goals break the record, but to have 12 draw controls against the No. 1 draw control person in the country, who only had four, was amazing,” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “So, I thought that was her biggest feat of the day was dominating the top draw control person in the country.”

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This is the time of year when Treanor should be able to look back on all she’s done, because over the last four years she’s proven to be one of the best women’s lacrosse players ever. In addition to leading Syracuse to the win on Saturday, she broke the career record for goals at Syracuse.

That record was a long time coming for a player who has been No. 5 Syracuse’s (14-4, 5-2 Atlantic Coast) best for the last two seasons. Now is the time to understand what Treanor has done, independent of this postseason, is nothing short of amazing. In addition to being second in career points and first in career goals, she’s helped SU get to each of the last three seasons’ final weekends. But instead of looking back, Treanor deflected to her teammates.

“I guess I feel really lucky to have played here and to have played with such good players because there’s a lot of people before me that set the path,” Treanor said, “and without my teammates I would have never gotten these opportunities and without playing on good teams you don’t get as many opportunities as I’ve been so fortunate to have.”

Fans already knew Treanor’s next goal would break the record. After her first goal, the public address announcer let everyone know Treanor had tied it. Then there was a false alarm of sorts, too — a Treanor goal was disallowed at halftime but not before it was announced as her record-breaking goal.

Yet, after Treanor’s actual record-breaking goal, the fans gave half an ovation. Treanor ran back to the draw circle before the crowd’s clapping could even really start. As fans clapped, she hardly looked around. She just patted the pocket of her stick and waited for the referee to place the ball between her and Morissette.

“Definitely with the momentum of the game, that goal,” Treanor said of how sweet the goal was, “We needed a score, we were not doing well in the second half and we needed a score.”

That’s the way it’s always been for Treanor.

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Even as Treanor walked into the press conference, she donned a sweatshirt that read “NCAA lacrosse.” She’s always looked ahead, because how she defines herself, at least publicly, is how her team performs. And what she wants is the NCAA lacrosse championship that has so nimbly slipped out of SU’s grasp the last three seasons.

Regardless of the postseason, regardless of how Treanor judges her success, regardless of whether attaining the goals record was a bucket-list item or not, Treanor has changed the game all while innovating the work of former SU players Katie Rowan, Alyssa Murray and Michelle Tumolo. All while making Syracuse into an elite program.

Sure, part of that is having Gait, possibly the greatest men’s player of all time. But Treanor has been with the program for more than 20 percent of its existence and has molded it as much as any player before her. Her stick skills are almost unparalleled now or in the sport’s history and she hasn’t just been one of SU’s best players ever, she’s been one of the sport’s best players ever. A championship and a Tewaaraton Award would cement her legacy. There’s no doubt about that.

But as the final stretch of Treanor’s career reaches its end — a stretch she’ll surely use as a benchmark — what she has done to this point should be recognized.

Chris Libonati is an Asst. Sports Editor at The Daily Orange where his column appears occasionally. He can be reached at cjlibona@syr.edu or @ChrisLibonati.

Published on April 24, 2016 at 10:50 pm