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mma Ward needed time to decide if her college career was over. After Syracuse’s Final Four loss to Boston College in May 2024 ended her fourth season, Ward felt immense pain physically and mentally.
She’d already torn both of her ACLs and suffered a meniscus tear before joining the Orange in 2021. As a sophomore, a Grade 3 turf toe and complete rupture of the plantar plate — a structure connecting her big toe to her right foot — sidelined her for the 2022 campaign.
At this point in her career, Ward has the knees of an 80-year-old, as described to her by a doctor in the summer of 2023 following a meniscus scope.
Still, Ward knew she couldn’t pass up the opportunity to return to SU for her fifth and final season. Already an all-time great, Ward has further cemented her legacy in 2025 by becoming one of seven Syracuse players to tally 300 or more points. An assist Thursday against BC will make her the program’s top facilitator, passing Katie Rowan Thomson’s 164 assists.
With her name continuing to climb the record books, Ward is a connector of eras at SU, acting as the last women’s player to appear under Gary Gait. She dons Syracuse’s storied No. 44, linking its male-dominated history to women’s sports. Through it all, she’s adapted and revolutionized her game to develop into one of the country’s best players.
“Five years have literally flown by, and early on, it’s, ‘What do you want to be remembered as? What do you want to accomplish?’” Ward said. “When I came here my freshman year, I couldn’t have imagined having the career that I’ve had.”
Following SU’s NCAA Tournament exit last year, Ward went home to Babylon, New York, for the summer and spoke with her closest family and friends to weigh the pros and cons of returning to Syracuse. But a conversation with SU head coach Kayla Treanor helped seal Ward’s decision.
Treanor, one of the top players in Syracuse history, told Ward a job can wait, knowing the graduate student would regret giving up the time she still had.
Ward agreed.
Cole Ross | Digital Design Director
The seasoned veteran entered 2025 among a cast of underclassmen. Dubbed “Mama Bear” by first-year midfielder Mileena Cotter, Ward says the freshmen group keeps her young. She constantly tests them, which has turned out to be crucial for the Orange with Ward’s expected co-star Olivia Adamson out with a season-ending injury.
After almost every practice and often during pregame warmups, Ward sits in her usual position behind the cage and flings passes at Cotter. High, low, off-target — each one is designed to test the freshman’s hands and focus. The recipe’s already reaped benefits, as Cotter took a low pass from Ward to push the Orange past Stanford in overtime on March 7.
Former teammate Emma Tyrrell said if she doesn’t see Ward talking in the huddle, she knows something’s wrong. Guiding her teammates after every score, which she’s done most of her career, Ward points out what she saw on the play, dissecting the defense and connecting the dots for better execution in the future. As the freshmen continue to find their way, they cherish the lacrosse education they’ve received from Ward.
“The older girls always talk about girls that were here before and talk so fondly of them. That’s what we’re all going to do when (Ward) is gone,” Cotter said. “When we’re talking to the freshmen, we’ll say how awesome it was to play with her.”
Older players helping younger teammates is a recurring formula Ward knows well.
She played sparingly across the first few games of the 2021 season. Then, when All-American Emily Hawryschuk tore her ACL in practice, Ward became a pivotal piece.
Former SU assistant coach Sydney Pirreca said Syracuse’s core of elite, experienced players, including Hawryschuk, Megan Carney, Meaghan Tyrrell, Sam Swart and Sierra Cockerille, took Ward under their wings. When Carney went down with an ACL injury later in the season, Ward became even more vital. And she thrived.
In the ACC Tournament Semifinals, she scored six points to help the Orange secure a win. Against Florida a few weeks later, Ward tallied a career-high six goals to push SU into the Final Four.
“Ever since she stepped foot on campus, she’s made a name for herself,” Cockerille said of Ward. “From the start, she never played like a freshman.”
Before instantly becoming a focal point of the squad, Ward’s interest in the Orange began while in middle school, training with SU star Nicole Levy. Ward played club lacrosse for Long Island Top Guns and was coached by Levy’s father, Steve, allowing the two to connect. She’d often pick Levy’s brain on what practices at Syracuse looked like and worked in frequent crossbar competitions to practice pinpoint accuracy.
Despite her ACL tears, Ward received continued interest from Gait and the Orange upon validating herself as a top recruit. According to her father, Maurice, Ward saw a lot of herself in Gait’s game, honing in on creative freedom and quick ball movement to showcase her talents.
That ingenuity has remained throughout Ward’s Syracuse tenure. Initially, Ward was largely a dodger and outside shooter but has developed into a deadly facilitator. After the Orange breezed through the 2023 regular season with a 15-0 start, Ward’s 49 assists ranked second in the country.
One of just three players in SU history to have over 150 goals and assists, Ward’s added flair makes her even harder to stop. Like a bull in a china shop, she blends power and creativity to wreck games.
Cole Ross | Digital Design Director
As SU’s primary threat in 2025, defenses have keyed on attacking Ward’s hands. Her left hand, gripping the bottom of her stick, receives nonstop stick checks. The constant contact reached its boiling point after Syracuse’s win over Pitt on March 15. As Ward walked off the field postgame to greet her mother, Jaqui, and brother, Jalen, her hand was swollen from her knuckles to her forearm.
Jaqui said Ward feared there was a fracture. She went for an X-ray the next day, and it came back negative. Though Ward knew if she didn’t want to miss time in her final season, she’d need to adjust. So, she worked with SU athletic trainer Kat Chaney to find a solution to protect her hand and allow swelling to go down.
At first, they tried a women’s lacrosse glove, but it didn’t provide enough padding. They tried a field hockey glove, though it didn’t allow Ward to firmly grasp her stick. Chaney created a custom pad, yet it obstructed Ward’s palm.
They landed on Ward using a men’s lacrosse glove.
According to Jaqui, the Orange applied for a waiver to the IWLCA to get the glove approved for four games, giving Ward’s left hand time to heal while still leading Syracuse on the field. Chaney cut out the palm of the glove to give Ward flexibility. She never missed a beat, helping SU knock off Loyola and then Notre Dame.
“She does what she has to for the team, and she’s been playing through any injuries,” Cotter said. “When you’ve been playing for that long and you’re that much older than everybody else, your body has just been through so much.”
Though the biggest weight on Ward’s shoulders has come from wearing No. 44. Maurice wore the number in high school in honor of SU legends Jim Brown, Ernie Davis and Floyd Little. With her high school No. 24 already taken by Emma Tyrrell, Ward’s father suggested a legendary alternative: 44.
Ward didn’t know about the symbolic history of the number at first. Though with her former ties to football and a history lesson from her father, the family agreed she could add to the number’s reputation by bringing it to the women’s side.
In donning the number, she’s added a whole new audience. Jaqui said when a young fan sees Ward’s jersey, they’ll learn the history behind it, keeping the conversation alive. The graduate student acknowledges the added responsibility of wearing the number. The excellence. The trailblazing achievements. The toughness. She’s embodied it all, while building upon the number’s footprint.
“Being able to leave my own legacy and create my own story for the number, I hope that in the future there are players that want to wear 44 because I did,” Ward said.
When Ward mulled over her decision this summer, Jalen said other options were discussed around the house. Boston College was on the table, but she made it very clear to her parents she wouldn’t play for the Orange’s nemesis. Maurice added Northwestern and Maryland were also part of the conversation.
However, Ward said she was deciding whether or not to continue playing lacrosse, and her loyalty to Syracuse didn’t waver.
The dedication to the Orange has made her fifth year more rewarding, even in a down year for the program. She entered the year at 248 points, knowing a return with a healthy season could result in joining elite company in Syracuse history.
In SU’s 12th game against Virginia, likely her last at the JMA Wireless Dome, Ward assisted freshman Molly Guzik, which marked Ward’s 300th career point.
“These are her flowers she’s getting,” Meaghan Tyrrell, SU’s all-time points leader, said of Ward’s latest accomplishment. “She absolutely deserves this.”
Syracuse women’s soccer players, and Emma Ward’s best friends, Kendyl Lauher (left) and Ashley Rauch (right) hold up the number 300 after Ward hit the milestone in SU’s game against Virginia on March 29. Lauher and Rauch often travel to away games to watch Ward play and have been to the last two Final Fours. Leonardo Eriman | Asst. Video Editor
All around Long Island, Ward is now a household name beloved by its youth lacrosse community. Pirreca said this past summer, when the two watched Ward’s cousin’s tournament, Ward was swarmed by fans asking for photographs.
She became a bridge between coaching staffs at Syracuse, described by Swart as the program’s “backbone” to the Gait era and pipeline to the future under Treanor.
“She is a legend at Syracuse already, and she’s not even gone yet,” Cotter said.
And through it all, when there was doubt, Ward ate it up and spit it out. She did it her way. So, how would Ward answer herself five years later about how she’d be remembered?
“I hope that people remember me as a hard worker, loving, genuine, funny, all those things. The last thing I want people to remember me as is a lacrosse player, because it’s so much more than that,” Ward said.
Photograph collage by Cole Ross | Digital Design Director
Published on April 17, 2025 at 12:38 am