How the weave motion transformed SU into perennial offensive powerhouse

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Down one goal after trailing for nearly 51 minutes against Virginia, SU turned to its go-to offense — what head coach Gary Gait refers to as the “weave.”

Megan Carney curled from the left side to meet Meaghan Tyrrell at the center, who mirrored the motion from the opposite side. With a defender pressed against her, Carney flipped the ball to her teammate and set a screen. Meaghan Tyrrell charged into the middle of the 8-meter arc for the goal. She tied the game at 11, sparking a 4-0 run at the end of the second half.

Gait has been adjusting the offensive scheme for the past three years. Its original purpose was to capitalize on the strengths of stars such as Emily Hawryschuk and help them combat double teams and reduce charge calls, he said. Without Hawryschuk — the leading scorer from 2018, 2019 and 2020 — and now potentially without Carney due to injury, SU continues to turn to its weave this season.

The Orange have relied on the weave during all 12 of their regular season wins. They’ve done the same in years prior, though Gait said he tries to tweak the offensive set based on personnel. It’s engraved in the identity of the team, one that averages 15.6 goals per game in 2021 and one that’s built the Orange into an offensive powerhouse.

“I’ll be honest, I created it to help Emily out as a player,” Gait said of the scheme’s conception. “I put my thinking hat on and tried to come up with some motion.”

The offensive set starts with SU’s attacks spiraling around the 8-meter from opposite sides, with each player at varying depths. The goal is to cross paths and confuse the defense. They flip the ball back and forth, inching closer to the cage with every pass.

Next comes the opening: a backdoor cut, dodge or pick-and-roll. With SU’s 78.7% shot-on-goal percentage, the ball likely finds its way into the back of the net.

Former Syracuse attack Nicole Levy, now an assistant coach at University of Colorado, used the set during her final season at Syracuse in 2019. The weave isn’t tailored to a single person, like Hawryschuk, she said. Instead, it opens up scoring options for all of SU’s attacks.

The weave’s flexibility has allowed SU to adjust despite lineup changes and injuries — including those that occured this season — as it allows players to quickly get plugged in, Levy said.

During the offseason, Levy trained with freshman Emma Ward. The current attack has 42 points through 14 games, good for the third-most on SU.

“(Ward) jumped right into that offense and immediately made an impact,” Levy said. “She’s running the offense exactly how she’s supposed to.”

Ward filled the vacancy Hawryschuk left on attack and became a tenet in the weave. Her breakout performance came in a four-goal, one-assist outing against Duke on March 6. On Ward’s third goal, Morgan Alexander started the weave motion and carried her defender out of the 8-meter arc. Then, Ward curled from the left side and received a pass from Meaghan Tyrrell. She darted, released a behind-the-back-shot and completed her hat trick.

But when the weave first started in 2019, it was something the team struggled to master, Levy said. Specifically, the Orange lacked the endurance to repeat the scheme in a game. Levy said that the team started using the weave in two-on-two and one-on-one dodging drills at practice before progressing into the full offensive unit.

Syracuse averaged 14 goals per game during its first season with the weave. But in 2020 and 2021, the Orange increased their average to 17.1 and 15.6, respectively, an improvement Levy attributes to the pick-and-roll.

Meaghan Tyrrell cradles the ball against a Boston College defender. Tyrrell is a key part in SU’s weave offense. Courtesy of Rich Barnes | USA Today Sports

“After running it for the last few years, they’ve gotten used to the timing of things and the different looks,” Levy said.

The pick-and-roll, inspired by men’s lacrosse and basketball, is relatively new in women’s lacrosse, Levy said. If the Orange face a two-on-two look in the weave, they can use a pick-and-roll to get separation. One attack throws a pass to the other while simultaneously blocking that player’s defender. The attack then opens up for an outlet pass, giving the ball-carrier a shooting option and a passing one.

Pick-and-rolls can be scripted, but the offense’s efficiency stems from the players’ own creativity, Levy said. Gait lets players use their own strengths with the scheme, she said.

“It shows the trust that Gary has in every single one of his players to possess the ball and make a play when they need to,” Levy said.

When then-No. 2 Syracuse faced No. 1 North Carolina, Meaghan Tyrrell used the weave to score the Orange’s first goal. She caught a pass in the center of the field before cutting to the right of the cage. She noticed there were no Tar Heels defenders in the middle of the 8-meter arc and spun to her left, side-arming a strike into the back of the net.

After scoring four goals early against UNC, the weave collapsed. When the Tar Heels tied the game at four with 11 minutes to go in the first half, Sam Swart flipped the ball to Sierra Cockerille, and she charged the 8-meter for a tough shot that missed.

SU abandoned its weave and the routine of passing until uncovering an open lane, leading to an increase in turnovers — the Orange were unable to keep the ball in their stick while charging the cage. By the end of the game, North Carolina had caused nine turnovers.

Following their loss to UNC, the Orange quickly returned to their offensive dominance. Syracuse averaged 16.1 goals in the six games since heading to Durham, North Carolina. Syracuse rebounded from its only other loss this year against BC with a 16-7 win in the regular season finale. Headlining SU’s attack was Emma Tyrrell with a career-high seven points.

Ten minutes into the first half, Emma Tyrrell looked for her second goal as the catalyst of the weave. She sprinted from the left side toward Bianca Chevarie on the right before stopping on a dime and switching directions. Emma Tyrrell’s defender continued to go to the right, and she used the weave to spin her way into an open lane up the center of the 8-meter.

Throughout the season, players such as Ward, Emma Tyrrell, Meaghan Tyrrell, Carney, Swart and Cockerille have all taken turns using their strengths in the weave. Levy said that SU’s attacks and midfielders read the defense in front of them and make decisions accordingly.

“That’s the beauty of the plays, it’s more of a motion,” Levy said. “Personnel-wise, there’s so many threats and just that offense has so many angles to attack from.”