The senior class for No. 2 Syracuse (14-2, 3-2 Atlantic Coast) has never lost a home game at J.S. Coyne Stadium. Some of those 35 games were easier than others, but the end result was always the same.

However, one contest has managed to stand apart from the rest — last year’s 1-0 overtime victory over North Carolina.

“Last year, the win against UNC was really cool,” midfielder Leonie Geyer said. “We had nothing to lose in that game, and we really didn’t expect to win and to get the goal in the last minute was really exciting.”

If history repeats itself this Saturday, Geyer and her fellow upperclassmen will have a storybook ending to their final regular season.

Geyer, Laura Hahnefeldt, Anna Crumb and Adrian Chambers will be honored prior to the Orange’s 1 p.m. Senior Day showdown with No. 3 North Carolina (14-3, 3-2) for all their accomplishments on and off the field. There’s plenty to remember: a trip to the final four last year, a Big East tournament championship in 2012, two All-Big East First Team selections and 45 goals among the four of them.

But the overtime win over the Tar Heels on Sept. 1, 2012, is the one they seem to remember most. Crumb said that along with the Big East championship, that victory will forever stand out.

“Just being able to do something like that at home was pretty great,” Crumb said in an email.

Even head coach Ange Bradley called it one of her more memorable moments with the soon-departing quartet. “It definitely goes up there,” she said.

However, Bradley prefers to look at the entirety of their collegiate tenures as Senior Day approaches, rather than just one game against a tough opponent.

In the case of Geyer and Hahnefeldt, Bradley commended the growth of their chemistry with the team.

“For Laura and Leo, our team does a pregame thing every game, and their freshman year, they would sit there and not pay attention,” she said. “They’d pick at their fingernails and think it’s the stupidest American thing ever.

“Now, in their senior year, they’re running the game.”

Additionally, Bradley praised Chambers’ ability to overcome two hip surgeries and a fracture and still be a valued part of the team.

She also said Crumb has perhaps undergone the biggest transformation of anyone.

“Seeing her grow from freshman to senior year,” Bradley said, “and her confidence in herself, that’s been really fun to watch.”

Even though she has greatly changed as a person and player, Crumb said it still feels like only yesterday that she stepped foot on the field at Coyne for the first time.

“Being part of this team and program the last four years has been such an honor,” Crumb said. “I owe a lot of who I am today to that team and program.”

Now, for the last time in regular-season play, Crumb and the other seniors can walk onto the Coyne turf and deliver a win for the home crowd, just as they have done the last 35 times.

And doing so against their conference rival from the Tar Heel State would be all the more rewarding. It might even give them a new greatest hit to add to their Syracuse playlist.

“Especially on Saturday now, Senior Day, where we’re unbeaten so far, and it would be incredible to leave Syracuse without being beaten on that field,” Geyer said. “It just gives me more motivation to win.”

Published on October 31, 2013 at 1:21 am

Contact Tyler: tfpiccot@syr.edu