The first time Gabby Jaquith tried running on a treadmill since tearing her ACL, she tripped. She knew things would be different than before the injury.

“Having an ACL injury meant that I had to change the style of play,” Jaquith said, “and not necessarily a dodger anymore, more of a feeder and kind of take a step back and change my role a little bit.”

Jaquith is still honing her skills as a passer even two years after the injury. She was moved up to the first-line midfield earlier this season and though she only has nine goals and six assists, she’s helped line mates Taylor Gait and Erica Bodt put up 24 and 21 goals, respectively.

Despite being listed as a senior on Syracuse’s roster, Jaquith will be coming back for a fifth year after redshirting her sophomore season in 2013 due to the ACL injury. While starting each of the past 11 games and taking just seven shots in those contests, she’s embraced her feeder responsibilities for the No. 4 seed Orange (15-7, 3-4 Atlantic Coast). SU will face Loyola (Maryland) (17-4, 8-0 Patriot) in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Carrier Dome.

“I trust her with the ball,” Bodt said. “Her feeds are great so I think her role as a feeder is extremely important and crucial to our team.”

As a freshman in 2012, Jaquith scored 17 goals, but she hasn’t matched that number since.

Syracuse head coach Gary Gait told Jaquith after her injury that he wanted her to develop her game outside of dodging, Jaquith said. Her biggest strength as a freshman was her ability to go to goal, but with less trust in her knee, she’s had to change her style of play.

“I think it’s more instinctual,” Jaquith said. “You just gotta go for the dodge and out of the corner of your eye you see your teammate cutting and you just feed it to them automatically because I trust every single one of the offensive players on my team.”

As part of an offense that includes Kayla Treanor and Halle Majorana, Jaquith said her job is easier. Treanor is 14th in the country with 57 goals and Majorana is 33rd with 50. Regardless of how good or bad the pass is, Jaquith said they always end up catching it.

At Cazenovia (New York) High School, Jaquith played attack and then switched to midfield in college — opposite of most college players, who usually begin as midfielders in high school and then move to defense or attack in college. Though she only plays offensive midfield and subs out when SU loses the ball, it’s still a different position.

She said she knows her head coach is counting on her for more production, but at the moment, she understands her job is to set up her teammates.

The midfielder only has 15 points this season, but is usually involved when the Orange runs plays with ball flips atop the 12-meter arc. Before Syracuse played Pennsylvania in the second round of the NCAA tournament, Penn head coach Karin Corbett mentioned the ball flips as something her defense had to prepare for.

While it took until the final portion of the regular season for the Orange to get on the same page, Syracuse has now won six of its last seven games and Jaquith has helped drive the recent success.

“It’s just about developing that chemistry,” Gary Gait said, “and she fits her role nicely.”

Published on May 13, 2015 at 12:40 pm

Contact Paul: pmschwed@syr.edu | @pschweds