First-year head soccer coach Ian McIntyre’s dog is named Elmore. In this weekend’s Mayor’s Cup tournament, SU will play both of its games on Elmore Field. This is no coincidence.

The tournament will take place on the campus of Hartwick, where McIntyre played for four years and coached for the past seven seasons. He and the four players who transferred with him will be returning after less than a year away from their former home.

‘It’s great to have the opportunity to go back so quickly,’ McIntyre said. ‘Normally when you move on, you move on. But it’s been a good partnership, Syracuse and Hartwick, in the Mayor’s Cup the last few years, and it’ll be good to see some familiar friendly faces.’

Syracuse will not play Hartwick in the tournament, however. It will face Northeastern on Friday, then Columbia on Sunday. The Mayor’s Cup is set up so that each team will play two others and the team with the most points wins at the end win the tournament. Ties are to be decided by goal differential.

Neither of SU’s opponents has a win yet this season, but nor does Syracuse. SU does have a slight advantage in its four transfers from Hartwick who are familiar with the field itself. Captain Jeremy Vuolo, a redshirt senior, spent four years with the Hawks.

‘It’s been my home for four years, and some of the other guys have played there a lot,’ Vuolo said. ‘So we have an advantage in that regard. I know how the pitch runs and stuff like that. It’s kind of like playing at home a little bit.’

The Orange is coming off a close loss to Adelphi. Scoreless through the first 90 minutes, the game went into overtime. Adelphi’s winning blow came on a penalty kick just seconds into the beginning of the second overtime period.

In the week of practice leading up to the tournament, Syracuse worked on three main things: set plays, keeping possession of the ball and moving the ball forward. Having seen the effectiveness of set plays in its opponents, Syracuse hopes to make the most of these key opportunities.

‘We’ve been working on perfecting restarts, because we feel that restarts will win this tournament,’ Arena said.

SU has scored just one goal so far this season, which came against Siena on a passing combination starting at midfield. Keeping possession as opposed to playing long ball was a weakness of Syracuse in that game. The team also spent time spreading out the field, which would allow for better ball retention.

‘We’re just trying to get a little more width in the team,’ McIntyre said. ‘Trying to put some quality services into the box and hopefully support our attacking players a little bit better than we have been. But the foundation of our program as we move forward is defensive stability and ensuring that we continue to emphasize that, we’re trying to get a little more quality going forward.’

In a weekend with two games, McIntyre and his players are primarily setting their sights on their first opponent, Northeastern. Although the Huskies had their best conference record ever last year, the team more recently suffered two road losses. In his scouting, McIntyre found that Northeastern plays an attacking style. He believes that his team can counter by imposing itself physically.

And for junior midfielder Nick Roydhouse, it’s also a trip back. Roydhouse is another of the players who transferred with McIntyre. As the leader of SU’s midfield, Roydhouse will be integral in improving ball retention and the transition to the forwards. If the team is able to execute the things it has been working on, he will be surer about his move to Syracuse. Finishing the tournament ahead of Hartwick would certainly help too.

‘It would have been easy to stay at Hartwick,’ Roydhouse said. ‘It would have been no different. But I’m challenging myself by coming here. And hopefully that’s going to pay off.’

alguggen@syr.edu

-Asst. copy editor Michael Cohen contributed reporting to this story