Meaghan Tyrrell’s selflessness led to becoming Syracuse’s all-time points leader

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Meaghan Tyrrell studied Syracuse greats in high school. She tried to emulate Michelle Tumolo’s high-IQ playmaking, Riley Donahue’s lefty shot and now-head coach Kayla Treanor’s dual-handed dominance. Now, they’re in the rearview mirror. On April 20, Meaghan broke Katie Rowan Thomson’s 13-year long Syracuse career points record, notching her 397th in SU’s game against Boston College. 

In the third quarter, Meaghan received a pass on the right. Spinning back-and-forth, she couldn’t find an open cutter inside a crowded 8-meter, so she ventured to X. 

A backside defender cut off her motion, so she looked up and saw her sister, Emma Tyrrell, wide open outside the crease, and Emma slammed the pass down for the score. The Tyrrell sisters now share a historic moment, but at the time, the milestone was the furthest thing from Meaghan’s mind.

“I really wasn’t thinking about it,” Meaghan said of the record. “It was kind of just like [Emma] was open, so I passed it to her. I guess knowing that now, it’s a little sweet, it’s awesome. I’m sure my mom probably loved that.” 

When asked how potentially breaking the record twice prior to the game — once before the season-opener and once before facing then-No. 5 UNC last week —  Meaghan’s response was the same: “I haven’t thought about it.” 

Meaghan’s focus is always on winning the next game, said former youth and high school coach Peter van Middelem. But capturing the elusive national title always looms in the back of her mind. That focus and selflessness has seeped through to the rest of the program during Syracuse’s nearly perfect regular season.   

“What makes this group so special is that you have a superstar like Meaghan Tyrrell who does not care if she shows up on the stat sheet or not,” Treanor said. “I give her a lot of credit for why we are playing well and why we are sharing the ball.”

Meaghan’s production has evolved during her time at Syracuse. In each of her four undergraduate seasons, she recorded more goals than assists by at least 10. But entering Thursday’s game against BC, Meaghan had an equal number of goals and assists (43) this year. 

Meaghan Tyrrell possesses the ball near the cage in Syracuse’s game against Boston College. Jacob Halsema | Staff Photographer

“The way we are actually running [the offense], there’s a lot of parts moving at the same time, so you might get a cut from the backside or someone coming from straight down the middle of the 8,” Meaghan said. “Going through a dodge and then coming up to see like three different options has definitely been a shift.” 

Emily Hawryschuk, who graduated last year as the program’s all-time goals leader, said that having seven elite and healthy goal-scorers is another difference in this year’s squad. And Meaghan is happy to take a backseat in the scoring department because of it. 

“She doesn’t care,” van Middelem said of Meaghan breaking the all-time points record. “It’s not in a flippant way or anything, it’s just stuff like that, she won’t even talk about.”

In her freshman year at Syracuse, van Middelem visited to watch Syracuse play Loyola. Lindsey Ehrhardt, Loyola’s best defender who ranked seventh nationally in caused turnovers that year, had her man-marked. 

Meaghan scored unassisted within five minutes, and Ehrhardt’s emphasis on her opened up room for other playmakers, helping SU jump out to a 12-4 first-half lead in the victory. Meaghan never noticed the man-mark.

“After the game I said, ‘Meg, their top defender, their senior defender, four-year starter, All-Conference, All-American was marking you in that first half,’” van Middelem said. “And she was just like, ‘oh really? I didn’t know.’ That’s just her mindset, [pressure] doesn’t bother her.” 

As a freshman, Meaghan played on a varsity squad that featured almost exclusively Division-I players. Mt. Sinai won the state championship in Meaghan’s first season, and she earned the 2015 Rookie of the Year award. Van Middelem had wanted to bring her up in eighth grade, but head coach Albert Bertolone disagreed. 

“[Bertolone] will be the first one to tell you that it was the biggest mistake of his career,” van Middelem said.

Quickly becoming one of the most highly sought players in the country, Inside Lacrosse ranked Meaghan No. 6 in her recruiting class, earning the 2018 Long Island Player of the Year and garnering three All-County selections. She led Mt. Sinai to three New York State Championships, four Suffolk County championships and four Long Island titles. 

“Meaghan is just dynamite,” said Rowan Thomson, who was an assistant coach when she was recruited. “She has that competitive calmness to her… She just has that ability to make those plays in pressure moments… She can read the play before it even happens.”

Meaghan, who committed to SU her sophomore year of high school, was recruited by Syracuse legend Gary Gait. Meaghan played under him for three years, saying Gait’s free-flowing offense and team-first mentality developed her into a better decision-maker and facilitator. 

When Treanor took over last season, Meaghan was fine with losing Gait, who took over the men’s program. She said that Treanor’s dominance as a player is “a huge reason why lacrosse is such a growing sport,” adding that her knowledge and creativity help see offensive concepts from different perspectives. Treanor’s adaptation of the free-flow offense has furthered Meaghan’s IQ even more, Meaghan said. 

Hawryschuk, who spent her final year with Treanor at the helm, said that she’s never had a coach like Treanor before. She added that the head coach is responsible for opening up more offensive concepts this season — concepts that Meaghan has capitalized from. 

“Having her down low… It was easy for us to play freely because we know each other so well,” Hawryschuk said of playing with Meaghan. “As soon as she stepped on campus, there was something about her that you knew she was going to make an impact.” 

Meaghan wasn’t 100% sure she’d come back for a fifth year until Emma went down with a torn ACL last April. The main reason she returned was to play with her sister one more time, Meaghan said. 

“[Meaghan] would tell me, ‘I’m being selfish, but I want you to get better and come back so that I can play with you one last time,’” Emma said.

Emma watched Syracuse’s blowout NCAA Tournament loss to Northwestern last May from home, with a knee brace on. It was tough for Emma, she said, but seeing Meaghan succeed was the silver lining.

Meaghan Tyrrell dodges past her defender in her first career game. She made her debut in 2019 against UConn. Daily Orange File Photo

“I had a proud sister moment watching her do all those amazing things [last year],” Emma said. 

This year, Treanor purposefully booked Northwestern for the season-opener. And with the score knotted at 14 with just over four minutes remaining, the Tyrrell’s stepped up. 

Driving right on her defender, Meaghan spun out after contact at the top of the zone. She found Emma to the right of the cage, who looped inside to dodge a defender, and pulled a shot down quickly to give SU a 15-14 lead with 2:24 remaining. Syracuse won 16-15, sparking a program-record 15-game win streak in Syracuse’s best regular season of all time. 

“Someone has to step up in that moment,” Meaghan said about the clutch scores against NU. “And whether it’s me or it’s not me, [I’m] just having that faith and belief that it’s going to be someone.”

Meaghan may be the biggest story in college lacrosse right now, but she doesn’t care for the individual storylines. 

Recently, van Middelem told Meaghan that she needs to be “more selfish” if she wants to win the Tewaaraton Award, which she was a finalist for last season. But Meaghan simply brushed him off, saying she’s only focused on the next game. 

Meaghan doesn’t see her milestone as reaching the mountaintop, but rather, she sees it as an honoring footnote in her search for a championship. That’s the mountaintop, van Middelem explained. When the season is over, win or lose, that’s when she might let everything sink in.