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A few hours before every game, Izzy Lahah gets a text. It’s always the same.

Activate beast mode.

Lahah doesn’t think much of it. It’s from Carla (Gigon) Farkes, Lahah’s club coach from Mass Elite, a Syracuse alum and — by Lahah’s own admission — possibly a bigger fan of hers than her parents. Lahah reads it, grins and continues getting ready.

“She knows what I’m capable of,” Lahah said. “(It’s) super cool when you know you have a fan like that.”

Farkes refrains from calling herself a fan. Stalker is more apt. She’s far from the only Lahah enthusiast out there. Nowadays, pretty much every Syracuse fan is a Lahah fan.

In her first full season as a defender, Lahah has become the most important piece on one of the nation’s best defenses. She leads the Orange with 42 caused turnovers and 44 ground balls. She’s the keystone of the unit. Just ask Coco Vandiver, who shares the back line with Lahah and wore the label for the past few years.

“She is our best defender,” said Vandiver, who recently broke Syracuse’s all-time caused turnovers record.

The praise is remarkable for a player who was a midfielder until late last year, spent almost two full seasons on the scout team and — in all sincerity — constantly asked Farkes if she was good enough to play at Syracuse.

But she always was. It just took a while for all of the pieces to fall into place. Farkes knew it. So did Stephanie Bissett, another Mass Elite coach and SU alum. They both said she had unteachable skills, ones that screamed: This is a Syracuse kid.

“Any time I see a kid, and I’m like ‘I want them on my team,’ I want them on Syracuse,” Bissett said. “I always tell all the kids that, ‘You’re gonna go where you’re meant to go.’ But with Izzy, I felt like Syracuse was the one.”

This wasn’t just an ego boost. To Farkes and Bissett, this was personal. They know what it takes to play at SU, and they were certain Lahah fit the bill. During her time playing for Syracuse from 2000-03, Farkes remembers starting the day with high-intensity, full-speed practices and ending with a lighthearted dinner that night.

Izzy Lahah defends Pitt’s Kaitlyn Giandonato in SU’s 16-7 win over the Panthers on March 28. Lahah leads the Orange with 42 caused turnovers. Tara Deluca | Asst. Photo Editor

Lahah strip-checked teammates in Mass Elite practice before jokingly chirping at them as she backpedaled into place. She bumped them and then flashed a smile. When her teammates were on the sideline, scrolling their phones, Lahah returned to the field and created games for herself, often trying to hit the crossbar from dozens of yards out.

“It reminds me of all of my teammates, always playing games and competing and trash-talking with each other,” Farkes said. “It’s hard to sell it if you haven’t lived it.”

Bissett felt the same. She and Farkes teamed up, trying to nudge Lahah toward Syracuse when she was just a middle schooler. They didn’t mean to pressure her, but Lahah’s coaches genuinely couldn’t picture her anywhere else.

Lahah hadn’t even chosen a high school yet, let alone college. But Farkes and Bissett spoke highly of their time at Syracuse and told her to “keep it on her list,” which she had barely formulated. Lahah, meanwhile, smirked, nodded and eyed them like they were out of their minds, Farkes said.

Lahah grew up in a hockey household in North Attleboro, Massachusetts. Her mother, Michele, played Division I hockey at St. Lawrence, while her father, Kevin, grew up on the ice before his Division III lacrosse career at New England College. Lahah’s younger sister, Maddie, is committed to playing D-I hockey at Yale next year. Pretty much, if your last name was Lahah, you skated.

So Lahah skated, too. But in fifth grade, two years after she first picked up a lacrosse stick, she realized she preferred the sport. When North Attleboro launched a lacrosse program, Kevin volunteered to coach. He joked that the “rest is history,” but in all seriousness, it wasn’t initially easy for Lahah.

Farkes and Bissett both admitted Lahah wasn’t the most polished player. Bissett said she played “slippery,” while Farkes said she had issues with her footwork and switching her stick between hands. Lahah put in hours of work in her front yard, turning her chimney into a wall for wallball, Kevin said, and absorbed his advice during road trips to tournaments.

Kevin didn’t talk much about his own lacrosse career, but he reiterated physicality and aggressiveness — traits imparted through the Lahah hockey background — were Lahah’s greatest assets.

“If you needed the ball, there’s a good chance Izzy is coming up with it,” Kevin said. “She’s just one of those kids where she puts the helmet on or the mask on and just goes to work.”

Ilyan Sarech | Design Editor

Lahah described her lacrosse career as a “slow burn.” She initially struggled to adapt to Mass Elite’s competitiveness when she joined the club in middle school. Practices entailed two hours of intense conditioning. All age groups practiced together, so Lahah was facing far more experienced players.

With Mass Elite, Lahah played alongside Dartmouth’s Annie and Fiona O’Keeffe, Boston College’s Molly Driscoll and Boston University’s Izabella Amonte. Driscoll, who also had a hockey background, naturally connected with Lahah, and the pair was soon dubbed “The Bash Brothers.” Bissett put it simply: “If you were trapped in a double team with them, you couldn’t breathe.”

“They were vicious,” Bissett said. “They would run girls off the field.”

Lahah began her high school career at St. George’s, a boarding school an hour south of North Attleboro. There were surfboard racks in front of every dorm, as the school rested on Rhode Island’s eastern shore. Two professional-sized turf fields sat in the heart of the campus where lacrosse was played.

By the time Lahah was a junior, Blair Ingraham, Lahah’s St. George’s coach, said she was the best athlete at the school. With her recruiting process impending, the real question was whether Syracuse would be a part of it.

Lahah and Kevin had been on SU’s campus before, driving through it without fully exploring its facilities. But the real visit came in fall 2021, when her recruitment window opened up. Lahah was initially skeptical. Syracuse’s cold weather made her question whether she was meant to be there.

Then came a sunny day, clear skies and the promise she would never have to live in a dorm again, which — if the fortunate weather day and SU’s lacrosse prestige weren’t enough — might have sealed Lahah’s commitment. For good measure, Lahah toured the Manley Field House, attended a football game and talked to current players. That weekend made all the difference.

“You could tell the athletes had so much pride and loved the school,” Lahah said. “I could really envision myself having a great time at Syracuse.”

Lahah texted her Mass Elite coaches a selfie in front of SU’s Ensley Athletic Center. When she told Ingraham she was going to commit there, Lahah’s high school coach broke down in tears.

“Carla and I were just as excited as her and her parents,” Bissett said. “I said, ‘Live it up for me again.’”

When arriving at Syracuse, though, Lahah was put in an unfamiliar spot. Ingraham said Lahah had never touched the bench before, but with the Orange, she lived on it. Lahah was put on the scout team, assigned to impersonate BC’s Rachel Clark and Northwestern’s Izzy Scane.

Lahah committed to the gig. She knew it would pay off, embracing her parents’ advice to dig in and find a way to stand out. She went up against Katie Goodale, Natalie Smith and Emma Tyrrell in practice and was tasked with making them better, which improved her game, too.

Those improvements wouldn’t be visible for quite some time, but Lahah patiently waited. In early April 2025, when starting defender Lexi Reber went down with injury, Lahah was finally called upon. She’d only played midfield before, but she was slotted in on defense for the next six games, three of which were postseason bouts. She forced eight turnovers in that stretch.

“When an opportunity opened for her, she grabbed it by the horns,” Farkes said. “She rolled up her sleeves and got to work.”

The field is Lahah’s happy place. That’s why Ingraham used to hesitate to take Lahah off it. Now, Syracuse head coach Regy Thorpe has found himself in a similar conundrum. Lahah hasn’t left the starting lineup since last spring.

“It’s a story I will share for years,” Ingraham said. “To rise above. That’s a testament to a true athlete, and that’s who she is.”

Lahah’s pregame routine hasn’t changed. She arrives at the JMA Wireless Dome and meets with the rest of the defense for 30 minutes before coaches arrive. She tapes her left ankle, does her hair and rolls out.

Then she checks her phone. There it is, that evergreen text, waiting for a response. For years, Lahah wanted to “activate beast mode.” On the same turf as her former coaches, in a spot those same coaches said she was destined to be in. It seemed like a pipe dream back then.

But now, it’s reality. Check the tape. Lahah doesn’t even need to respond. Farkes can turn on the game and just watch her pupil. No text, but the message is received. This is beast mode.

“She’s just a different type of kid,” Farkes said. “She’s a Syracuse kid.”

Published on April 16, 2026 at 12:45 am
Contact Jordan: jordankimball28@gmail.com | @JordanKimball_