The Meag and Meg Connection
By Adam Avin | @_adamavin
CitrusTV Women’s Lacrosse Beat Reporter
On April 19th, 2022, the last time UAlbany visited the JMA Wireless Dome, Emily Hawryschuk scored four goals to help the Orange beat the Great Danes, 18-11. She just so happened to break Syracuse’s all-time goals scored record (272). With all the injuries the team endured last year, anyone healthy needed to step up and Hawryschuck certainly did, but there was another player who took their game to a whole other level: Meaghan Tyrrell.
In 2021, Tyrrell played in all 21 games and had 68 goals, but in 2022, she played in all 21 games and had 78 goals, outscoring Hawryschuk by 15. Tyrrell’s season placed her at second on the all-time single-season goals scored list, just one goal shy of tying her head coach, Kayla Treanor (79).
Coming into this year, Meaghan was placed on every pre-season awards list, with people expecting her to do what she does best… score goals. She still does that extremely well, don’t worry. However, this year she’s taken on an extra role as a playmaker. Teams have become so worried about slowing her scoring down, they’re forgetting how versatile she is as a player, by finding open teammates and directing traffic for them to take shots. Earlier this year, Treanor said Meaghan and the rest of the team have been so good at making in-game adjustments themselves and doing what she was planning on staying in the huddle before she could even get it out.
Having Meaghan on the field without the ball in her stick has caused just as much trouble for opposing defenses this year. In three of the four games played so far, Meaghan has at least five assists and in the season-opener against Northwestern, she tied her game career-high with six. As I write this, Meaghan has 18 assists through the first four games. If she kept up this current pace (4.5 per game) through 21 games, she would finish with at least 94 assists on the season. That would put her first on Syracuse’s all-time single-season assists list. Also, Meaghan currently has 124 career assists (including the 18 from this year). If you add the hypothetical 94, that would bring her career total to 218, putting her 54 assists ahead of second (Katie Rowan – 164) on the all-time career assists list, making her almost impossible to catch up to.
Funny enough, in the same game against UAlbany that Hawryschuk broke the record, Meaghan became only the fifth player in school history to achieve 100 career assists. And she did that while scoring the second-most goals in a season in school history. Safe to say Meaghan isn’t anywhere done chasing the record books in any category.
Scoring hasn’t been an issue for the Orange at all this year. In fact, they haven’t trailed in the second half of a game this year, and they haven’t trailed in the first half since the season-opener (Northwestern). With so many scoring attackers/midfielders back this year, there’s no shortage of opportunities on offense, but Megan Carney being back has been a huge boost for the team. Last season, she was in and out with injuries and only played seven games… yet she still tallied 31 goals. In 2023, Syracuse has played just four games so far and she has 16. If Carney stays on her current pace of four a game, she would more than double her goals from a season ago. The only issue is, besides the Covid year, Carney hasn’t played a full season, so health is key, but when she’s on the field she’s one of the best attackers in the country.
Both Meaghan and Megan are great individually but are also stellar together. In 2023, they’ve accounted for over 40% of the team’s points (goals and assists) and they’ve assisted each other six times on the other’s goals. The connection between these two, and what they’re able to do for Treanor’s squad is on-par if not better than any other duo in the history of women’s lacrosse.
We witnessed greatness last time SU played UAlbany, and we’ll see it again this Wednesday, March 1st when the two teams face off at 4 p.m. The Orange is 15-0 against the Great Danes all-time and averages around 16 goals per matchup. Will there be another Meaghan/Megan day? You’ll have to tune in to find out… but yes, there probably will be.
