© 2026 USA Lacrosse. All Rights Reserved.
Opening day of the 2026 NCAA Division I women's lacrosse season is Feb. 6.
Throughout the month of January, we'll pose three burning questions for each team ranked in the USA Lacrosse Division I Women's Preseason Top 20, presented by CWENCH Hydration, starting with No. 20 James Madison and finishing with No. 1 North Carolina.
Join the conversation on social media @USALMag (IG/X/FB). Wrong answers only.
It’s a new regime at Syracuse with former Orange men’s great Regy Thorpe now head coach after Kayla Treanor left for Penn State.
A late-season swoon left Syracuse 10-9 last year. Leading scorer Emma Ward (30G, 46A) graduated, though she is volunteering with the team while finishing a master’s degree, and Olivia Adamson transferred to Northwestern. Meghan Rode, who led the Orange in draw controls last year, left for Richmond.
The Orange have their next eight top scorers back. They added 2024 America East Defensive Player of the Year Mackenzie Salentre (UAlbany) and 2024 World Lacrosse Box Championships gold medalist Cece Webb (Virginia) to their defensive corps, Courtney Maclay (Stony Brook) to the midfield mix and Angela Beardsley (Stony Brook) to the attack.
Last year’s top scorer, Emma Muchnick, is on the U.S. Women’s National Team. The senior midfielder was a third-team All-American last year, and defender Coco Vandiver returns for her senior year after garnering honorable mention accolades.
Caitlin Defliese Watkins is the lone holdover from Treanor’s staff, and Thorpe brought former Syracuse star Nicole Levy along with him from Florida, where she was offensive coordinator. They spent the fall building team chemistry and culture while sharing their philosophy and evaluating the players and what systems will work.
“We switched it up pretty much week-to-week and day-to-day with just different looks in there,” Thorpe said. “It was good because we got out of the fall what we think the first quarter of our season we can be successful at on both ends of the ball. And then there are areas that we really need to put a little more focus on and really improve on.”
Thorpe has been encouraged by the buy-in and sees all the ingredients to make a good team. The staff has emphasized how much work has to be done outside of practice by players if they want to develop well. They met with each player to try to narrow down roles.
“We certainly got some answers,” Thorpe said. “But there are still some questions.”
With a schedule beginning with Maryland, North Carolina and Stanford, the Orange hope they’re figured out early.
We did some different combos in the fall, but it’s definitely going to have to be by committee
Regy Thorpe on the Syracuse offense in 2026
The Orange were in the last third of all college teams in draw win percentage and then lost Rode. As such, the draw was a huge focus for Syracuse through the fall.
They tried any number of combinations, which is what they did last year when eight players had at least double-digit draw controls. Taking the draw could be captain Joely Caramelli, freshman Ireland Mistretta, the transfer Maclay or sophomore Molly Guzik — and there are even more options to put on the circle.
Only Sam DeVito is graduated from the group that helped last year.
“We’re trying to get the circle people set up for success,” Thorpe said. “So it’ll be an area that we’ll put a lot of attention on and certainly an area that we’re going to need to be competitive in.”
He’s hoping the committee approach yields somewhere in the 50 percent range. Syracuse was at 46 percent last spring. Their success in the circle has long-reaching effects on either end of the field.
“If we’re going to be average on the draw, we need to be really efficient offensively and defensively or the game can really get away from you,” Thorpe said.
Fortunately, there is solid strength at both ends of the field. The defense got even deeper with Salentre, who brings big-game experience, and Webb, who’s looking to prove herself. Three-year starters Vandiver and Kaci Benoit are defensive leaders and captains. Fall standout Izzy Lahah, improved Kendall Boggs, highly touted freshman Julia May O’Connor, healthy Lexi Reber and Ella Blesi are part of a group Thorpe says is 11 deep.
“We’re very transparent with the players,” he said. “It’s really to be determined. It might switch with how deep we are on the D end, game to game, and how we match up size and speed.”
The offense returns 70 percent of its scoring from a year ago, though Ward’s feeding and playmaking is a big loss. Muchnick (34G) and Caroline Trinkaus (32G) are the top scorers back, but no one had more than 11 assists among this year’s returners.
“We did some different combos in the fall, but it’s definitely going to have to be by committee,” Thorpe said.
Justin Feil grew up in Central PA before lacrosse arrived. He was introduced to the game while covering Bill Tierney and Chris Sailer’s Princeton teams. Feil enjoys writing for several publications, coaching and running and has completed 23 straight Boston Marathons. Feil has contributed to USA Lacrosse Magazine since 2009 and edits the national high school rankings.
