A

ring ceremony honoring the winners of the 2022 World Lacrosse Women’s World Championship was scheduled for Jan. 21 at USA LaxCon in Baltimore, Maryland.

The 18 members of the United States championship team arrived, taking pictures on the red carpet before piling into a huge ballroom and into their assigned seats. Then, each player — including Syracuse head coach Kayla Treanor — received their championship ring and watched a nostalgic video before Treanor and Taylor Cummings took to the stage.

“It was a great night,” Treanor said. “I really just talked about how difficult it was but how much I’ve been able to love it and how rewarding it’s been for myself as a person and a player.” 

It had come full-circle for the three-time gold medal winner. Treanor would be going out on top as a world champion. The 2022 run was her final ride with the U.S. national team, a program that she was introduced to as a rising senior in high school. Afterwards, Treanor retired from playing to fully concentrate on coaching in her second season in charge of Syracuse women’s lacrosse, where she played from 2013 to 2016. 

“It was a very special time,” Treanor’s father Mark said about the ceremony. “All those players had become so close, and it was a great way to put the frosting on the cake.” 

Treanor never took lacrosse seriously until middle school. She enjoyed basketball and soccer, two sports Mark believed developed athletic abilities that were crucial in her transition to lacrosse. She later started at the varsity level as a freshman. 

In 2011, Treanor earned a spot on the U19 World Championship roster. She totaled 14 goals in eight games during her debut tournament as the U.S. won gold in Hanover, Germany.

“That experience made me know that lacrosse was the sport that I wanted to pursue,” Treanor said. 

Growing in Niskayuna, New York, Treanor didn’t receive much recruitment attention. But when SU showed interest, her ears perked up. On her official visit, she clicked with the other recruits and current players. She enjoyed the rich culture of the program as well as the ease of creating relationships with other athletes, specifically the women’s basketball players. She marveled at the opportunity to play under Gary Gait — one of the game’s best players ever. 

“He encouraged her to take risks and be creative,” Mark said. “That’s kind of the Syracuse way, and she thrived. Her experience at Syracuse surpassed all our expectations.” 

Gabby Jaquith was a year older than Treanor and played a similar position. They met for the first time at Syracuse lacrosse camp in high school and again when Jaquith committed to SU. 

The following season, in the fall of 2012, Treanor arrived on campus. 

“It was like she was a freshman going on senior,” Jaquith said. “She fit right in.” 

Treanor started in her first collegiate game against Jacksonville in February of 2013. Syracuse entered the contest as the No. 1 ranked team in Inside Lacrosse’s preseason poll. Though the Dolphins scored first, Treanor finished the game with five goals and six points, tying the most goals by a freshman in a debut.

“She had just such an innate talent with both hands and was a natural at her craft — and it really was a craft,” said Liz Hogan, former SU goaltender and Treanor’s USA teammate. “Watching her was jaw-dropping.” 

Treanor finished her first year with NCAA All-Tournament honors, being named to the All-Big East first team and the conference tournament team as well. But, The Orange’s run to the National Championship was halted in the semifinals by then-No.1 seeded Maryland. 

As a sophomore, Treanor set two single-season program records with 117 points and 79 goals in Syracuse’s first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference. She gathered All-ACC first team honors and made the NCAA All-Tournament team again, advancing the Orange to the National Championship with another showdown against Maryland. Treanor entered the game as the nation’s leading scorer and was a finalist for the Tewaaraton Award — gifted to the season’s most outstanding player. 

Maryland led 5-0 before Treanor scored her first goal. Starting behind the net and beating her defender going right, she slotted the ball into the bottom left corner to get Syracuse on the board. Moments later, she scored in almost identical fashion on the opposite side. 

Maryland eventually won 15-12. Although Treanor never failed to reach a Final Four in her college career, this would be her only National Championship that she’d reach as a player. 

Treanor’s junior and senior years brought two more Tewaaraton Award finalist seasons, but Maryland ended both campaigns. Treanor accrued first team All-American honors four times in her career and notched a then-program record of 260 career goals. She played 94 games and never missed one, named as a starter every single time. 

“I think she’s the greatest player in college lacrosse,” Gait said in an Inside Lacrosse documentary. “She makes plays that have never been seen before, and she should be proud of what she’s done.” 

As a child, Treanor knew she wanted to coach at some point, and took an assistant role at Harvard after graduating. The following season, she assumed the same position at Boston College, where she stayed for four years.

“She has some of the highest lacrosse IQ I’ve ever witnessed in a human before,” Hogan said. 

Watching her as a player, Jaquith always noticed Treanor’s ability to add her own spin and creativity, describing her as “extremely innovative.” When Treanor became a coach, Jaquith saw she taught the game in a different way, using core concepts in other sports, like basketball, and applying them to lacrosse.

Prior to the 2017 World Championship, Treanor was invited to Team USA training camp, one of many that served as mini try-outs. The program would send invitations to new groups of players for every camp. Hogan said the search for who made the cut spanned about 250 athletes for a roster of 18 — “the elite of the elite” — which Treanor made. 

Through eight games, Treanor set a U.S. tournament record for points in a single World Championship, tallying 43 points, made up of 24 goals and 19 assists. Against England in the semi-final, she set a U.S. single-game record with 12 points. The U.S eventually took home gold, defeating Canada 10-5 in the final. 

Gait, who had been appointed to take over the Syracuse men’s program in June 2021, wanted help deciding his successor as the new head coach of the women’s program. So, he asked his past players. 

When Gait called her, Treanor was by herself, but it was a busy time — she had just helped coach Boston College to a national championship, beating Syracuse in the final. She was nearing the end of her professional playing career, too, though the 2022 World Championship loomed ahead. 

Treanor said she felt no pressure, because she never even saw the position at Syracuse as a realistic opportunity. Mark said Syracuse would be the only place she’d leave Boston College for. Jaquith added there was no one more fitting from an alumni perspective. 

“It was a moment I’ll never forget,” Treanor said. “I was just so excited to come back and coach these players and this team.” 

In her first season in charge, Treanor had a couple bumps to deal with. Preseason honorable All-American mention Emma Ward suffered a season-ending toe injury during the team’s first practice. Emma Tyrrell and Sierra Cockerille had both suffered season-ending, lower-leg injuries too. 

Syracuse started the season on a four-game win streak, defeating three ranked opponents. The Orange eventually won six conference games, losing just two to Boston College and North Carolina. 

In the postseason, Syracuse crashed out of the ACC Tournament with an upset loss to Virginia after beating the Cavaliers by six in the regular season. 

In the NCAA Tournament, Syracuse survived a scare in the first round, squeaking by Fairfield 12-11. Next, SU handled then-No. 9-seeded Princeton to set up a rematch against Northwestern in the quarterfinals. The Wildcats routed the Orange 15-4 to end their season. 

The turnaround was quick. The Orange fell out of the NCAA tournament in mid-May, and Team USA’s first game of the World Championship was at the end of June. 

The U.S. breezed past Scotland, Australia, England and Japan, advancing to the final against Canada. Up until that point, Treanor had amassed 19 goals and 14 assists in just seven games. She remembered walking into the game as the memories of her career and inseparable relationships flashed before her eyes. 

“This past one was really emotional, because I knew it would be the last time I was going to play in a U.S. uniform,” Treanor said.  

After careful consideration, Treanor said she was at peace and confident with her decision. She said that coaching Syracuse ultimately “fills her cup,” and that she doesn’t need anything else. 

“(The SU players) made that decision so easy, because I feel like I owe them my very best. And I’d love to see these girls have a wonderful experience and hopefully win a championship,” Treanor said. 

Against Canada, Hogan gathered the ball in the cage, throwing an outlet pass toward the midfield. The ball eventually made its way to Treanor at the right side of the opposing cage. She received the ball and pump-faked once, as if she was aiming top-left, before sending a swift, low shot past the goalkeeper’s outstretched foot. That goal — which gave the U.S. a 6-2 lead — would be her last statistical contribution sporting the red, white and blue. 

“Kayla’s one of the all-time greats,” Hogan said. “She’s eclipsed several records, and she’s just known (to) all of us as one of the best to ever do it in women’s lacrosse.” 

As Treanor stood up on that stage at the Baltimore Convention Center, next to her stood Cummings — her dear friend and former USA Teammate. Cummings, a former midfielder for Maryland, played an integral part in foiling every one of Treanor’s runs to the Final Four as a player and won the Tewaaraton Award every year Treanor was nominated.

Cummings shared the grueling pressure of a 2013 USA training camp when the two first played together. And in the same gold-medal game, Cummings played in her final career match. 

“It’s been one of the highlights of my life, and the teammates you get to experience that emotion with — it just bonds you forever,” Treanor said. “For me, it’s been about relationships.”

Mark agreed — only now, he says she has prioritized the relationship with the women in Syracuse’s lacrosse program. 

Treanor and Cummings both delivered moving speeches that night, Hogan said. Mark said Treanor described walking away from Team USA as the “hardest experience she’s ever loved.” 

“Lacrosse has brought a lot of joy to her life,” Mark said. “She wants that same joy to be brought to a lot of the kids that play for Syracuse right now.” 

Photo courtesy of Boston College Athletics

Published on February 2, 2023 at 12:04 am

Contact Tyler: trschiff@syr.edu | @theTylerSchiff