The Daily OrangeSU field hockey earns undisputed title with win over Rutgers
By Tony Olivero
Posted: 11/2/09, 2:29 AM EST Section: Sports
After handing out each individual Big East championship trophy to her players in Manley Field House Saturday, Ange Bradley finally had the opportunity to get the point across. With her first real chance to address the program's fans at the end of a long and arduous regular season, Bradley chose her opening words carefully.
The head coach could have used those first few seconds to reflect on the day's dominating effort in a 6-1 victory over Rutgers. She could have even reflected on the team's eight wins against Top 20 teams over the course of the season.
Instead, Bradley made sure the fans and her team knew exactly how she felt about where the program is at this point in time. In the coach's mind, even though the team finished the year undefeated in conference play, the true season hasn't begun.
"Our season is just beginning," Bradley said to the crowd as she began to hoist the Big East championship trophy. "Some may think it is coming to an end, but it's just the start."
With that, the coach erased any real feeling of ultimate accomplishment from anyone's mind. The team and Bradley know there is much more to accomplish this season. More than the Kristin Girouard-led dominating victory over a winless Big East foe in Rutgers (2-16, 0-6 Big East) -- Girouard scored two goals on the day to lead the team.
Twenty-minutes earlier, perhaps the modest celebration had to do with exhaustion, or the torrential downpour they had just played in.
But for Syracuse's leading scorer, junior forward Lindsey Conrad, the lack of real celebration came as no surprise. This is in fact an Orange team (16-2, 6-0) that has dominated the Big East conference since the beginning of the 2008 season, compiling a 13-1 record, two regular season titles and a tournament championship over that period. For Conrad, it was just another example reaffirming SU's place at the top of the Big East, and consequently, the victory served more as deliverance.
"Well it definitely sets us apart from everyone else in the conference, its something Ange has never done here," Conrad said. "With the undisputed title people just know that we worked really hard for this. We earned it and now we are showing it. I think it was more of a release."
The head coach could have used those first few seconds to reflect on the day's dominating effort in a 6-1 victory over Rutgers. She could have even reflected on the team's eight wins against Top 20 teams over the course of the season.
Instead, Bradley made sure the fans and her team knew exactly how she felt about where the program is at this point in time. In the coach's mind, even though the team finished the year undefeated in conference play, the true season hasn't begun.
"Our season is just beginning," Bradley said to the crowd as she began to hoist the Big East championship trophy. "Some may think it is coming to an end, but it's just the start."
With that, the coach erased any real feeling of ultimate accomplishment from anyone's mind. The team and Bradley know there is much more to accomplish this season. More than the Kristin Girouard-led dominating victory over a winless Big East foe in Rutgers (2-16, 0-6 Big East) -- Girouard scored two goals on the day to lead the team.
Twenty-minutes earlier, perhaps the modest celebration had to do with exhaustion, or the torrential downpour they had just played in.
But for Syracuse's leading scorer, junior forward Lindsey Conrad, the lack of real celebration came as no surprise. This is in fact an Orange team (16-2, 6-0) that has dominated the Big East conference since the beginning of the 2008 season, compiling a 13-1 record, two regular season titles and a tournament championship over that period. For Conrad, it was just another example reaffirming SU's place at the top of the Big East, and consequently, the victory served more as deliverance.
"Well it definitely sets us apart from everyone else in the conference, its something Ange has never done here," Conrad said. "With the undisputed title people just know that we worked really hard for this. We earned it and now we are showing it. I think it was more of a release."
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