ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Sitting beside the media table just before the postgame press conference, Syracuse goalkeeper Jess Jecko buried her face in her hands. Still wearing the thick gray goalie pads, blue shirt, orange shorts and white national championship T-shirt, she seemed temporarily overwhelmed by the moment.

The left sleeve of her Under Armour tugged back to reveal four lines of blue-green text scrawled on the back of her left hand. The words were smudged slightly by the blocker pad she’d worn all game.

She couldn’t make out the first line, but the next two were quotes from Mia Hamm and Muhammad Ali.  The last line read: “I am a champion.”

Jecko wrote that line before the game Sunday. By 2:41 p.m., it was true.

The senior goalkeeper made five saves — tied for her most since SU beat North Carolina on Sept. 12 — and led her team down the stretch. Syracuse (21-1, 6-0 Atlantic Coast) avenged its loss in the Atlantic Coast Conference championship Sunday by beating North Carolina (21-3, 4-2), 4-2, to win the national championship Sunday afternoon at Ocker Field in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Jecko made multiple saves to stop a UNC run which briefly tied the game and threatened to overwhelm the Orange.

“The defense stayed calm and composed,” senior forward Emma Russell said. “It’s a philosophy of the team this year, just breathing under pressure.”

The team had done a breathing exercise after Syracuse went up 2-0 early to stay level-headed, Jecko said. She then made a lunging save to her left to keep the Tar Heels off the board in the first half.

Before goals by North Carolina’s Gab Major, who scored the overtime winner in Syracuse’s ACC title loss, and Malin Evert tied the game, Jecko made acrobatic stops to keep UNC off the board. She dove left twice and fought off rebound opportunities to keep the game even.

Defender Zoe Wilson put home a penalty corner at 58:39 to give the Orange the lead, but it didn’t ease up on Jecko. After getting tangled up with a North Carolina player, Wilson received a yellow card with about six minutes remaining, meaning the Orange would be down a player for five minutes. In that time, Jecko made a leaping save to her left, and then another kick save to stop Nina Notman from tying up the game again.

“And now it’s sitting right here,” Jecko said, gesturing at the trophy while her voice caught. She paused.  “You can’t even put into words what it means.”

Even after Wilson’s penalty-corner goal stopped North Carolina’s run and Emma Lamison gave the Orange insurance, the Tar Heels kept attacking. After a scrum in the box, North Carolina drew a penalty stroke.

UNC’s Notman stepped up with 2:29 to go. A goal would put the Tar Heels down one with some time still left. Jecko readied herself. She’d watched tape on Notman, knew her tendencies and had practiced about 20 strokes per day for the last week.

Notman’s shoulders dropped as Jecko made a diving save to her left. Midfielder Serra Degnan ran to Jecko and yanked on her mask, screaming into the goalkeeper’s face.

“When it comes down to the moment, you just throw your body at it,” Jecko said. “And Serra, yeah … she said, ‘We’re doing this, baby! Let’s go!’ and some other things I probably can’t say.”

Sitting in the press conference, SU head coach Ange Bradley reflected on Jecko’s four years. Syracuse being the central New York native’s only Division-I offer out of high school and transitioning from super fan to three-year starting goalkeeper.

This summer, Jecko’s mother, Michele Jecko, texted Bradley before her daughter left for school. Unbeknownst to Jecko, her mother shared the conversation the two had before Jess left.

“I want to be a national champion, mom,” Jess told her mother at the time. “That’s what I came here to do.”

Published on November 22, 2015 at 5:27 pm

Contact Sam: sjfortie@syr.edu | @Sam4TR