Full Circle: Kate Mashewske Proving To Be Syracuse’s X-Factor

While growing up in Henrietta, N.Y., Syracuse Athletics might as well have been the pro team for Kate Mashewske. She dreamt of playing lacrosse in the then-Carrier Dome like Michelle Tumolo and fellow New York native Kayla Treanor. When she went on her campus visit, it wasn’t the Ernie Davis statue or the 2003 men’s basketball national championship trophy she snapped a photo of to keep as a memory.

“I took a picture of Kayla Treanor’s locker,” Mashewske said. “I still have the picture.”

Mashewske didn’t get Treanor’s old locker when she arrived on The Hill in the fall of 2019 at the start of her freshman year. She did, however, break Treanor’s 2016 single-season program record of 217 draw controls during a 15-draw effort in Syracuse’s quarterfinal win over Yale on Thursday. She has 220 this season with at least one more game to play against Boston College in Friday’s national semifinal.

For her part, Treanor, now the Orange’s head coach, has no hard feelings. When asked about Mashewske’s odds of surpassing her mark before the Yale, Treanor told the media she “hoped so.”

Besides Treanor and Tumolo, Mashewske also admired Rochester-born Emily Hawryschuk, a true senior when she was a freshman. Mashewske would unexpectedly get to call Hawryschuk a teammate for two more years — the first because of the extra season granted to players after COVID-19 canceled the 2020 season. The second came after Hawryschuk tore her ACL in 2021, leaving the Orange searching for someone to take the draw. They looked to Mashewske to take on a new role.

“I was a two-way middie all through high school and came in as one,” Mashewske said. “We had a great group of upperclassmen. There wasn’t a lot of playing time. When Emily Hawryschuk got hurt, I started to find my way into the rotation [on the draw]. I started to find my niche and success. I would do anything to get on the field. I worked on the craft of taking the draw, and it became my thing.”

Mashewske’s 2021 season included a 25-draw weekend in back-to-back wins over Notre Dame and a trip to the national championship game, where the Orange fell to a Boston College program that had Treanor as its associate head coach. That summer, Treanor returned to helm her alma mater. Mashewske had a big question: “What did you tell Charlotte to do?”

Mashewske, of course, is talking about Charlotte North, the former Boston College star who was also dominant on the circle.

“Once I started being known for taking a draw, analysts would always comment on how I’m always looking around the circle,” Mashewske said. “Kayla said, ‘As soon as you’re looking around the circle, I would tell Charlotte that it was her chance to really focus on the ball.’ Now, we have a lot more verbal communication rather than me looking up at where everyone is on the circle.”

Treanor continued to lean on Mashewske as a draw specialist rather than a two-way middie, a role she’s embraced but has come with a mindset tweak.

“I have to have a short memory,” Mashewske said. “I compare myself to our goalies. If you lose one, you have to jump back and rest because you’re going to have a bunch of other draws that impact a game.”

Mashewske has worked with a sports psychologist on that. But mostly? The abilities come naturally to her, and she’s embraced the role of draw specialist and the challenge of setting the tone for the offense.

“It’s a game within a game, 3-v-3 off the first whistle,” Mashewske said. “It’s something that is a part of the game and does influence a game. I can see if I’m having an off game, the whole team is off.”

Mashewske would again have to pivot her role for the team — to one completely off the field — midway through the 2023 campaign when she tore her ACL.

“I’m a very competitive person, so I just want to win,” Mashewske said. “I was not wishing last season away at all because it was very early. I did my best to be present with the team and help out where I could from the sidelines. Olivia Adamson did a great job stepping up.”

Adamson recorded 107 draw controls, helping Syracuse return to the Final Four, where it fell again to Boston College. Mashewske rehabbed throughout the fall and was cleared in January, a month before the Orange’s opener against Northwestern.

“It was a pretty quick turnaround before the first game,” Mashewske said. “I was physically working back into things that first month and making sure I felt good. Mentally, it took longer than I wanted to. I remember I was frustrated at the beginning of the season because it had been 10 months.”

The typically steady Mashewske, who loved a good challenge, wondered if she had lost her skill. She credits Treanor and assistant coach Abigail Rehfuss for assuring her she had not.

After a one-draw game in an overtime loss to Maryland, Mashewske broke through in Syracuse’s fourth game on the road against Notre Dame. The Irish were riding high after a win over preseason No. 1 Northwestern. Mashewske corralled 10 draws to help the Orange secure a win, the first of 13 double-digit draw efforts she’s produced this season.

“This has been a really hard physical and mental journey for her to get back to this stage and be able to be mentally and physically fit [and] ready for this moment,” Treanor said. “I give her so much credit. She’s playing, I think, out of her mind right now.”

Out of her mind sounds like hyperbole. You could argue it’s an understatement. Syracuse bounced Stony Brook, a team that beat it in the regular season, from the NCAA tournament largely because of Mashewske’s 20-draw day in the second round.

She followed that with the previously mentioned 15 draw controls against Yale, an effort that helped Emma Tyrrell and Emma Ward combine for 16 points against a Bulldogs defense that had entered the matchup averaging fewer than eight goals allowed per game.

“She’s showing how important she is in every game,” Treanor said. “Look at our opening game against Sony Brook. She had 20 draw controls. I don’t care who you’re playing, that makes such a difference.”

The Orange will look to Mashewske on Friday to help it break a six-game skid against Boston College that began with the 2021 NCAA championship game. A win would bring Syracuse one step closer to securing the NCAA title that’s eluded it all these years — something Mashewske has witnessed as both a local fan and player.

“This has been a dream of mine ever since I knew what college lacrosse was and a dream of my whole grade and the grade below me,” she said. “We’ve been a part of it. We’ve been chasing it. We’re hungry for it. Ever since we lost in that national championship game, it’s been a reality check. We can get there. We’re right there. To be national champions this year would mean the world, and I honestly can’t even put it into words. I have a good feeling about this weekend and know that this is the group that’s going to do it.”