Rachel Sayer isn’t normal. And Syracuse field hockey head coach Ange Bradley means that in the most complimentary way possible.

After Sayer injured her knee two months ago for the second time since joining SU in December, it would have been ordinary to limit herself until the end of the season, when doctors told her she might be healthy again. It would have been expected of Sayer to be content cheering her team on from the sideline.

She wasn’t.

The freshman goalkeeper trained as hard as she could, putting in as much grueling work as possible with the intention of being ready and healthy before the end of the season. And in the week before SU’s game at Albany, Sayer heard what she had been waiting to hear since she graduated a semester early from high school.

She had earned the starting goalkeeper spot for the Orange.

‘I was excited, and I couldn’t wait to get back onto the field,’ Sayer said. ‘I hadn’t played in almost a year, and coming back from injuries are never easy, but doing rehab and training got me back where I needed to be. This is what I live for. This is my sport. So being out on the field was just great.’

Sayer’s start came after Bradley deactivated four starters for undisclosed reasons, including sophomore goalkeeper Leann Stiver. But Bradley said Sayer rightfully won the job. Despite the controversy surrounding the Orange, Sayer’s performance has proved she is capable of playing for a Top 10 program.

The freshman goalkeeper has put up ‘spectacular’ results, her teammates said, picking up the first three wins of her young career and holding two ranked opponents to a combined two goals. Her contribution has been essential in a key stretch of the season.

‘Rachel is an outstanding competitor,’ Bradley said. ‘I knew she always had that mental toughness in her, but unfortunately she was plagued by injuries last spring. Everything she’s worked for and had taken away from her was just there, and she celebrated that moment.’

Though that moment was earned through her intense training, the physical rehab she had to go through nearly eliminated the true reason she arrived early to Syracuse. Sayer wanted to get a jump on the tough transition to the college game, but her injuries diverted much of her focus to simply getting healthy enough to play.

Sayer said one of the biggest casualties of her redirected concentration was the ability to constantly communicate with her defense. But like every other obstacle she has encountered as a member of the Orange, she has been working hard to overcome it.

‘There are different methods of communication, but all of the goalies that we have on our team (have been able to) communicate well with the defense,’ sophomore back Iona Holloway said. ‘I think she did so well for her first starts of the season.’

Though the isolation of her extensive workouts rarely gave her the opportunity to build that chemistry with her defense, she credits the encouragement and support of her teammates with the fact that she was healthy two weeks earlier than expected.

Normally, a player with Sayer’s injuries wouldn’t have been cleared to play until there was a week to go in the season. Ordinarily, a player with no previous college experience couldn’t shut down two ranked opponents away from home.

But even in the face of a dire late-season changeup for her team, Bradley was expecting Sayer to act normal in her debut all along.

‘She has perseverance, and she knows how special it is to be out on the field,’ Bradley said. ‘I think that says so much for someone who takes advantage of an opportunity. That’s a winner, and I’m proud to be standing with her and next to her.’

jakrakow@syr.edu