FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Matt Abbott wants to end his career at Syracuse by winning ‘just one more game.’

Syracuse has won many games with Abbott, a senior midfielder, playing offense and defense for the Orange – 46 to be exact under the reign of SU head coach John Desko, the winningest active coach in college lacrosse. So one more doesn’t seem like much. But for Abbott and the rest of his teammates, winning one more game means becoming the 2009 national champions.

For Abbott, Kenny Nims, Dan Hardy, Pat Perritt and the other seniors one more win would give their senior class two national championship rings. They would be on the first team in over a decade to win back-to-back national championships.

Syracuse (15-2) will have its chance to win ‘one more’ game Monday at 1 p.m. (ESPN) when it takes on No. 5 Cornell (13-3) in the title game at Gillette Stadium. Syracuse defeated its central New York rival Cornell in the regular season 15-10 on April 7, but Cornell has since defeated the two opponents that bested Syracuse this year: Princeton in the semifinals and Virginia in the final four. For the senior class, it has been four years of ups and downs that will culminate in Monday’s matchup.

Nims, Perritt and Hardy were all featured in Inside Lacrosse’s 2005 recruiting issue and were ranked the No. 2, 3 and 4 prospects in the country. Hardy was even given the No. 22 jersey, a jersey worn by former lacrosse greats that comes with high expectations. The 2008 championship was expected from this crew, and one as seniors would fulfill all the expectations.

‘We’ve seen the highest of highs and the lowest of lows,’ Abbott, a Tewaaraton trophy finalist, said of his class.

The highs Abbott speaks of: winning the 2008 national championship.

The lows: the dismal 2007 showing where the Orange only won five games and missed the playoffs for the first time in 25 years. Off the field problems plagued the Orange as well; Perritt was arrested for disorderly conduct and resisting arrest in fall 2006 then later left the team; two other players also left the team in 2007, Hardy was arrested for DWI in October 2008. The past four yeas have been a ‘rollercoaster,’ Nims said.

But now, Syracuse’s seniors have the chance to completely erase the on-the-field blemishes. Winning back-to-back titles is something Syracuse has not done since Roy Simmons Jr. was at the helm in the late 80’s. Desko has won four national titles, but none consecutively.

‘It’s our last go around as seniors,’ Abbott said. ‘We are going to try to go out on top.’

As Syracuse warmed up to play Duke Saturday it wore gray shirts that said ‘legacy’ on the front. For many of these seniors, they are apart of a family legacy that has made Syracuse’s lacrosse tradition strong. Nims’ father, the late Tom Nims, was on the 1983 team that won the first-ever SU national championship. Abbott, Hardy, Perritt and Greg Niewieroski all have fathers, brothers or cousins who experience success at Syracuse.

But this weekend, the Nims, Abbott, Hardy, Perritt and Niewieroksi on this team have a chance to cement their own legacy by winning ‘one more game’ and winning back-to-back national titles.

‘There have definitely been a lot of ups and downs in our career,’ Nims said. ‘I feel like we’ve grown up a lot since we’ve came here. To be apart of the team last year, we really rolled up our sleeves and went to work and picked up the pieces from 2007 and that’s something I’ll always remember. … It would be real nice to go out on top this year.’

mkgalant@syr.edu

Published on May 24, 2009 at 12:00 pm