Syracuse Women's Lacrosse: Appreciate Kayla Treanor Before She's Gone

We've reached the NCAA women's lacrosse tournament, which means win or go home. For the Syracuse seniors, going home means the end of their careers. Their teammates will come back to campus in the fall and resume lacrosse season in the spring, but every game in the tournament is potentially the last for the most-tenured players on the team.

This group of seniors accomplished a lot: a Big East Championship, an ACC title, three Finals Fours (with potential for a fourth this year), and a 72-20 (.782) overall record.

But there is one particular senior that will be missed most of all: Kayla Treanor. We may never see another player like her.

Sure Syracuse will continue to recruit amazing players that represent the best talent in the country, but few of them, and I mean maybe one or two, will ever possess the talent that Treanor has.

Never has the game seen a more dominating player. In her career so far at Syracuse, her lowest point total from a season was 91 points (!!!).

I could go through her entire resume and recount every record, but honestly that would take awhile. If you care to go year by year, game-by-game, here is her Syracuse lacrosse career in summary.

The point is Treanor is one of those dynamic players that people watch in awe. Every coach I've spoken to after games at the Carrier Dome, like Maryland's own Cathy Reese, rave over her ability; the way she handles her stick, and her composure. Many say they have never seen a player dominate games the way Treanor is able to.

These coaches know an extraordinary talent when they see one and after games, win or lose, they cannot help but marvel at Treanor's talent.

They know when they see Treanor, they see an attacker that has revolutionized the game of lacrosse. Opposing teams design game plans around her and they need to know where she is on the field at all times.

And the crazy thing is, she is only getting better.

Before this year Treanor was not the draw specialist for Syracuse. She only took a few throughout her SU career and high school. But once she emerged as the go-to draw specialist for the Orange, she became the best in the country at it.

Whatever task Treanor is given, she will not only do it, she will master it and rival the best of the best. She just has that raw talent that no one in the game can match, and it comes with a ton of hard work.

Treanor's whole life has been about this game and even when she leaves Syracuse, her passion for lacrosse will likely play a large part in her future.

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But today, she's still starring at Syracuse. Her face is on a billboard in Syracuse, lacrosse magazines all over the country, and she was even in a commercial for a local hospital in her hometown.

She is Syracuse's all-time leading scorer, a two-time Tewaaraton Award finalist, and is 13 points shy of becoming the second player in NCAA history to ever reach 400 points. She's one of the top-five players to ever play the game. In fact, she ranks fourth on the NCAA all-time points list, only behind the legendary Jen Adams, Hannah Nielsen, and Katie Rowan.

Treanor's records and accolades during her time at Syracuse may be broken one day and that's fine. Records aren't meant to last the test of time. Many paved the way for Treanor to become the player she is today and she recognizes that. She also may not know is that she's been a true trail blazer herself. The game of lacrosse is not the same as it was when she came into snowy Syracuse as a freshman four years ago.

So watch Kayla Treanor play, and be grateful that you did. Because when she is gone we may never see another player like her again.