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At McDonogh School (Maryland), Coco Vandiver defended the country’s top lacrosse players both in practice and games. No. 1 recruit Kori Edmondson and No. 8 recruit Carolina Godine both were Vandiver’s teammates.

But outside of McDonogh, Vandiver first crafted her skills against her twin sister, Ana Lee Vandiver. Playing one-on-one against Ana Lee, now an attack at Elon, standing four inches taller than Vandiver, she learned to face players with a height advantage.

Now a sophomore at Syracuse, Vandiver has started every game on its defense since joining SU in 2023, when she made the All-Atlantic Coast Conference Freshman Team. In November 2020, Vandiver committed to Syracuse before even making McDonogh’s varsity team.

While most of her club teammates had committed after having varsity experience, Vandiver was in the minority, feeling she had added pressure to prove herself, Vandiver said. Still, it was her competition with her sister that drove her most.

“When (Ana Lee) beats me, I’m not letting her get a goal off,” Vandiver said. “I got in the habit of being able to get a back check off if a girl gets a step on me.”

In the spring of her junior year of high school, Vandiver made varsity. Initially, she didn’t receive much playing time, motivating her to improve.

During the offseason before senior year, Vandiver worked with local trainers to hone her speed and lacrosse-specific skills. Vandiver and Ana Lee also trained for a running test.

“She was a huge sponge,” said Taylor Cummings, McDonogh’s women’s lacrosse head coach and three-time Tewaaraton award winner. “She asked a ton of questions to our defensive coordinator and to myself. She asked a lot from the veterans on the team and she really just took all of the insight and lacrosse IQ.”

Coco Vandiver defends an attack in Syracuse’s game against Army. Vandiver has been a key cog on the SU defense in her first two seasons. Joe Zhao | Asst. Photo Editor

Cummings said Vandiver was used as a matchup defender who guarded each team’s top defender. The growth she made was immense, according to Cummings.

McDonogh faced Glenelg Country School and Vandiver was assigned to defend Maggie Weisman, the No. 4 recruit in the class of 2022, per Inside Lacrosse. Her assignments in practice against Edmondson, Godine and Ana Lee prepared her for the matchup.

“(Vandiver) wanted to have the top matchups and wanted to play against the best people in practice and in games because that pushed her to be better,” Cummings said.

As one of Gary Gait’s last recruits, Vandiver came to Syracuse without much of a relationship with new head coach Kayla Treanor, who became SU’s head coach in June 2021. But Cummings, who had played with Treanor on the United States National Team, assured Treanor that Vandiver was a strong player.

When Vandiver joined Syracuse in fall 2022, she was anxious about playing at the collegiate level, Ana Lee said.

But Katie Goodale, then a junior defender on SU, made the transition to college easier for Vandiver. The pair broke down film and practiced footwork together to improve their fundamentals.

In the first game of Vandiver’s collegiate career, Syracuse matched up with then-No. 4 Northwestern. Leading up to the game, Vandiver didn’t expect to play much despite getting lots of playing time with the first team in practice. But on gameday, Treanor elected to start Vandiver.

Early in the game, Vandiver established herself. At the 11:14 mark of the second quarter, Vandiver back-checked Tewaaraton winner Izzy Scane, causing a turnover for SU. In the fourth quarter, Vandiver took the ball from Northwestern’s Elle Hansen, helping lead Syracuse to a 16-15 win.

Cole Ross | Digital Design Editor

Going forward, she felt her confidence increase. On March 15, Vandiver tallied a game-high three caused turnovers, helping the Orange to a 9-7 win over then-No. 9 Loyola.

Her time at McDonogh prepared to make an immediate impact at SU, tallying 15 caused turnovers and 15 ground balls. She also started all 21 games.

“I was really used to the fast-paced style of play and practices being long and pretty brutal,” Vandiver said. “The fall of my freshman year, that’s exactly what they were. They were long and tough and I felt ready for it.”

In her sophomore season, she’s continued to build off her freshman campaign. Vandiver showed an increased awareness for the positioning of offensive players on March 23 against then-No. 9 Virginia. After Syracuse took a one-goal lead, UVA won the draw but Vandiver intercepted a pass from Madison Alaimo with 4:29 left. The interception slowed the Cavaliers’ late momentum and helped SU to a one-goal win.

As Vandiver’s playing time has increased at Syracuse, she’s made analyzing film a habit. Aside from her own, she breaks down Ana Lee’s games as well, providing a defensive perspective to help improve her sister’s skills, Ana Lee said.

Even though Vandiver and Ana Lee are each playing collegiately, their one-on-one battles continue to be a part of their training. They schedule their workouts to be 30 minutes, but they constantly push past their allotted time because neither sister wants to end the workout on a loss.

“That’s the competitiveness of it, that we obviously want each other to play insanely (well),” Ana Lee said. “We definitely like having more of that aspect, of having something to hold over each other in the best way.”

Published on May 1, 2024 at 11:11 pm