C
oco Vandiver stood alone in the middle of the Lally Athletics Complex field, feeling invisible. It was her first Division I practice, and, as former Syracuse defender Hallie Simkins put it, the jump from high school is like getting hit by a freight train.
But if no one knows who you are, how bad could it really be?
Vandiver was an unknown, undersized, unpopular recruit. With her first collegiate drill set to begin, everything slowed down. The field split in two. Midfielders one way. Defenders the other. The choice was hers.
It should’ve been simple. Vandiver was recruited from Maryland powerhouse McDonogh High School as a midfielder. Maryland’s Kori Edmondson and UNC’s Caroline Godine shaped her craft. But Vandiver said she’d rather give the bruises than take them.
Why not?
“I was so under the radar that I was just able to walk to defense, and I was like, ‘No one’s gonna say anything,’” Vandiver said. “I thought no one really cared.”
Vandiver’s decision to play defense molded her career, becoming a fixture on Syracuse’s backline for the past three years. She was one of two freshmen to start every game for SU in 2023. She’s since started each of Syracuse’s 62 matchups, collecting Atlantic Coast Conference, USA Lacrosse and Tewaaraton Watch List honors. Entering her senior year, she’s the heartbeat of a unit she wasn’t even guaranteed to play for.
“Her ability to make plays, we weren’t expecting that of her,” said Syracuse associate head coach Caitlin Defliese Watkins. “Sure enough, that’s what we got. She was really hungry.”
The 5-foot-5 Baltimore, Maryland, native didn’t play on McDonogh’s varsity team until the end of her junior year, when an injury to an attacker thrust her on the field. SU recruited her through two Zoom calls and a few brief texts with then-head coach Gary Gait, Vandiver said. She never toured Syracuse. She didn’t receive a scholarship. She didn’t even speak with Defliese Watkins during the recruiting process, giving then-assistant coach Sydney Pirreca most of her attention.
It was far from her teammates’ paths, who made waves on national rankings before Vandiver knew such lists existed.
But when Vandiver arrived in Syracuse, that was put in the past. Former Orange defender Katie Goodale said SU didn’t care who was a five-star recruit as long as you performed at the caliber the consensus top-5 program demanded.
No one embodied that better than Vandiver.
Coco Vandiver sprints upfield in Syracuse’s 13-12 win over then-No. 11 Virginia on March 29, 2025. Vandiver led the Orange with 40 caused turnovers, setting the stage for a pressure-filled senior season. Leonardo Eriman | Senior Staff Photographer
“Within the first couple months of her being there, it was pretty obvious she was gonna make an impact,” Goodale said. “It became evident how much she was willing to risk to make a play.”
Vandiver didn’t earn stars — let alone know how to get them; she cracked the rotation with her IQ. Defliese Watkins said she was one of those “special players” who controlled the game’s tide. Vandiver knew her teammates’ tendencies so instinctively that they joked she had a magnet in her stick.
“It’s just her desire to be that Swiss Army Knife for the team. Fit in wherever she needs to fit in or whatever the coach needs from her,” Simkins said. “She wants to be on the field, and she’ll prove herself to be there.”
Vandiver honed her craft in fourth grade in her Baltimore backyard, where she battled her twin sister and Elon attacker Ana Lee Vandiver. Ana Lee was four inches taller than Vandiver, yet Vandiver could read her sister’s every move. Hours of one-on-ones regularly ended in disagreement.
The two sharpened each other’s teeth with suggestions on new techniques to try out and ways to react faster. Ana Lee was blunt, unfiltered, and Vandiver respected it. The back-and-forth dogfights lasted years.
Vandiver displayed that same “scrappy” playstyle in her first fall at SU. In her mid-fall review with Syracuse’s coaching staff, Vandiver’s coaches pinpointed that part of her game exceeded their expectations. She agreed.
“I went in with this attitude of, no one’s expecting anything out of me. I’m a freshman,” Vandiver said. “There were girls in my class who were All-Americans and four or five-star athletes, and I didn’t have any of that, so there was zero pressure on me.”
Vandiver’s mentor also eased her arrival at Syracuse. Goodale — who ended her career as the program’s all-time leader in caused turnovers and was a First Team All-American — was Vandiver’s “buddy.”
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Each year, SU’s coaches match players in pairs, creating a network of buddies, someone to turn to with questions. When Goodale was a freshman, she depended on All-American defender Sarah Cooper. Cooper’s main piece of advice to Goodale was to trust herself, which she passed down to Vandiver.
As Vandiver scaled the depth chart to solidify a starting role throughout her freshman season, the advice paid dividends. In her first game, a 16-15 win over No. 4 Northwestern, Vandiver picked the pocket of Izzy Scane, who Goodale called college lacrosse’s best player at the time. It was a testament to Goodale’s past message to Vandiver: her time would eventually come. On that February night, it had.
Vandiver said the lack of pressure she put on herself allowed her to play freely. She never felt like she had to prove anything to anyone.
That feeling quickly vanished, though. As Vandiver’s career progressed, the pressure mounted, not by her, but by others. When Simkins — who’d spent five years becoming SU’s devoted backer — left after Vandiver’s sophomore season, the expectations reached their peak.
Simkins described the backer position as “doing everyone’s job and no one’s job at the same time.” The position normally serves as the last line of defense in front of the goalie. Its responsibility is to follow the ball, supporting and organizing the rest of the backline. It took the ultimate communicator and meant wearing “a million hats.” Defliese Watkins said it’s the team’s “jack of all trades.”
In Simkins’ final year at SU, Vandiver constantly asked her for guidance during practice. Defliese Watkins told Simkins to coach Vandiver from the sidelines before she took over the role.
For the first time, Vandiver openly expressed nervousness. She described experiencing “culture shock,” going from a place where mistakes were expected to one where a single slip-up could prove costly. She even told Simkins she was unsure she could fill the gap.
“At a certain point, you have to tell yourself that you deserve where you are and the spot you’re given,” Goodale said. “And the way you keep deserving it is by working as hard as you did when you were that underdog.”
Coco Vandiver evades a Clemson attack in Syracuse’s 9-8 loss to the then-No. 14 Tigers on March 1, 2025. In the defeat, Vandiver led the Orange with four caused turnovers, three more than the second-highest. Aaron Hammer | Staff Photographer
For two seasons, Vandiver had been the youngest defender on the field, learning behind players who seemed nearly faultless. Entering her junior year, she noticed a shift. During the first practice, she realized it was her job to direct traffic and keep everyone on the same page.
At first, the responsibility felt heavy. Vandiver never spoke up unless absolutely necessary. Now, she says she’s too used to using her voice.
With a new defensive spine came new aspirations. One of Vandiver’s was to allow fewer than 10 goals per game. She measured her personal success by how well she guided the defense. Unfortunately for Vandiver and Co., the Orange allowed double-digit goals in 13 of 19 games in 2025, resulting in nine losses, the most Vandiver — and Syracuse — have ever experienced.
It was difficult for Vandiver to pinpoint the cause of the defeats. She tries not to hold resentment, but the sting of falling to Yale in the NCAA Tournament — the Orange’s second loss to the Bulldogs last season — still lingers.
It left Vandiver feeling just a little bit different about the upcoming campaign.
“People are going to look at us like, ‘They didn’t have the greatest year’ and we’re more of an underdog,” Vandiver said. “The underdog mentality I love, because I always felt like one growing up.”
As Vandiver prepares for one last ride at the forefront of Syracuse’s defense, it’s hard for her not to recall the uncertainties she faced when she first arrived on campus. One of those moments came in a conversation with Simkins.
Amid the pressure transitioning to backer, Simkins would look at Vandiver and tell her to play as if no one were watching. Vandiver had no trouble following that advice. She’d been doing it her whole life.
Now, with Syracuse aiming to reclaim its elite status, Vandiver leans on that same mentality she’s always carried.
Except then, no one was watching. Now, everyone is.
Photograph courtesy of SU Athletics
Published on January 29, 2026 at 12:00 am