Spring Break
The Daily OrangeWith 3 games left, SU seniors looking to leave on good note
By Jeff Laboon
Posted: 10/22/09, 12:27 AM EST Section: Sports
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The task in front of her was quite the challenge, as the Orange's next opponent was No. 6 West Virginia on the road in Morgantown, W.Va.
The moment did not last long for Bennett-Hattan, though. She left the game with a red card in the second minute for running into a West Virginia player outside of the box.
"I just wanted the ball too much, I guess," Bennett-Hattan, now a senior, joked.
Now, three years later, Bennett-Hattan is the SU all-time program saves leader with 318 and is preparing for her final two games in a Syracuse uniform. What was once a promising start for the Orange (4-10-3, 1-7-1 Big East) has since become a struggle. The team is winless in its last seven games, eliminated from Big East tournament contention and sits alone at the bottom of American Division of the conference.
Bennett-Hattan believes that these final games against Marquette and South Florida give her and her fellow seniors - Tessa MacDougall, Chelsea Berry and Sami Hirsh - an opportunity to not only leave on a positive note, but also to show the development of Syracuse women's soccer.
"I just want us to play well," Bennett-Hattan said. "I just want to see that the season can amount to something; that the season can amount to progress for the program. We just want to see us moving forward and see us finally put it together."
Like Bennett-Hattan, MacDougall remembers her first career game at SU. The squad played on the road against No. 8 Virginia. The team lost, 6-0, to the Cavaliers, but MacDougall still thinks it was a good experience because it prepared her for some of the hostile environments and tough opponents that the Orange played during her time on the team.
But this season's group of seniors never had the opportunity to play in the Big East tournament. In fact, the team only won consecutive games three times in the last four years, two of which were this season. MacDougall still treasures the experience of playing in the program and thinks that better times are around the corner.
"That's disappointing," MacDougall said about this season's struggles, "but I think in the grand scheme of the program, they're going to make up for what happened this year and they're going to get into it in next year's.
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