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Nicole Levy wasn’t nervous. At least, based on her confidence this January morning, you would never guess she was.

The task ahead certainly gave her reason to be. Levy was hired as Syracuse’s offensive coordinator in July 2025, inheriting an attack that appeared to be beginning a rebuild. The Orange just turned in one of their worst seasons in program history with nine losses, bowing out of the NCAA Tournament in the second round. SU lost its best offensive player, Emma Ward, to graduation while its best scorer, Olivia Adamson, transferred to Northwestern.

Entering the 2026 season, Syracuse had little familiarity. Sure, there were promising returners. But the engine driving SU’s attack throughout Kayla Treanor’s tenure was gone. So was Treanor, who departed after the 2025 season.

New faces, like Levy and head coach Regy Thorpe, needed to fix that.

Perched at a John A. Lally Athletics Complex conference table a few weeks before the Orange opened their season, Levy was asked about her mentality entering a year where — for the first time in a long time — Syracuse was seen as an underdog.

“I’ll give you a Regy quote,” she began. “We don’t rebuild, we just reload.”

While the Orange have dealt with bumps along the way, Levy and Thorpe have molded SU’s attack into a threat. Syracuse sits toward the bottom of the Atlantic Coast Conference in scoring, but the new coaches have developed underutilized players from Treanor’s tenure into legitimate All-ACC talents en route to a 12-win regular season. With the Orange’s NCAA Tournament run starting Friday against Loyola, their attack must be at the top of their game to advance further.

“The new coaching staff, they’ve been incredible,” SU attack Molly Guzik said. “They give you all the confidence that you need as a player, anything and everything that you could want as a player, confidence-wise, mentally-wise. They’re a big part of that mindset flip.”

Just that — flipping the mindset — has been key in the rebuild, especially with an attack that lacked experience last season.

The Orange typically start four of Guzik, Caroline Trinkaus, Mackenzie Rich, Annie Parker and Ashlee Volpe. Outside of Trinkaus, who started all but one game last year, the group combined for just eight starts. Guzik, Rich and Parker didn’t start a single game.

Regy Thorpe and Nicole Levy watch from the sidelines as Syracuse battles Boston College on April 16. Thorpe and Levy placed trust in midfielders like Molly Guzik and Mackenzie Rich to lead SU’s attack this season, and it’s paid off, as the Orange will play in the NCAA Tournament Friday. Avery Magee | Development Editor

It didn’t help that Guzik, Rich, Trinkaus and Parker were playing as attacks after starting their SU careers as midfielders. Trinkaus switched positions last season. Guzik, Rich and Parker followed suit as Thorpe and Levy experimented with the lineup this season.

“Being a middie is a really unique opportunity where you can do whatever your coach needs,” said Emma Muchnick, one of SU’s two-way midfielders. “Being able to tap into those individuals and use them when needed is really helpful, especially when we try to run other teams into the ground and use our athleticism and speed.”

Since midfielders tend to know both ends of the field well, the attack naturally has high IQ and an aggressive ride, Trinkaus added. The results have shown that for Syracuse. Guzik leads the team with 40 goals. Rich leads the team with 21 assists. Trinkaus has quietly scored 20-plus goals, Volpe’s enjoying her best season and Bri Peters — another attacking midfielder — has scored 13 goals off the bench.

Trinkaus said Levy brought more character and surprise elements to the attack, evident in a few hidden-ball-trick scores. Otherwise, Muchnick and Volpe agreed not much changed about SU’s expectations or offensive philosophy.

“She’s brought out the creative side of the game and not thinking too much,” Trinkaus said. “Manipulating the defense is a big thing.”

Even when Syracuse seemed to be entering a rebuild, Thorpe always said the goal was to play on Championship Weekend. That’s no longer a distant reality. The Orange just had to find the right people to fill the gaps.

Before the season, Thorpe said replacing Ward — who totaled 76 points last year — would be a group effort. Ahead of the NCAA Tournament, it’s been just that. SU has four players with over 30 points and seven more with at least 10. Guzik and Rich said the key was the confidence the new coaches instilled in Syracuse’s untapped talents.

“I think those guys coming in, whatever it was, gave me such a boost of confidence in the fall,” Guzik said.

Thorpe and Levy’s chemistry has been building for a decade. Levy played under Thorpe from 2016-19 when Thorpe was a Syracuse assistant. Levy, who came to SU as a top-10 recruit, blossomed into one of its all-time greats, scoring 141 goals and becoming the 10th player in program history to tally 200 points.

Levy said Thorpe was one of her biggest mentors as a player. Thorpe knew Levy wanted to coach, she added, so the two discussed building a resume and getting her started.

“He was the first person I put on my reference list,” Levy told The Daily Orange in January. “We never lost touch, and we were constantly talking.”

It helped Levy land her first coaching job at Colorado before the 2020 season. The Buffaloes steadily improved in her three years in Boulder, notably averaging 12.94 goals a game in 2022, her final year with the program. When the opportunity came to reunite with Thorpe at Florida the following season, Levy knew she had to take it.

Nicole Levy shouts instructions at her Syracuse squad before SU’s 7-4 loss to Boston College on April 16. Levy played four years as an attack at Syracuse before beginning her coaching career, which eventually led her back to SU as its offensive coordinator this season. Avery Magee | Development Editor

Across three years in Gainesville, Thorpe and Levy molded the Gators into one of the nation’s best offenses. UF made the Final Four in 2024 and 2025, boasting the nation’s best scoring attack in the former.

“We were always bringing a lot of the concepts and culture from Syracuse down there,” Levy said of her time at Florida. “It was exciting for me to have those three years where we weren’t working together to then come back and remember those little things that end up making a huge difference for teams down the road.”

At that point, Levy became Thorpe’s right-hand woman. So when Thorpe was hired as Syracuse’s next head coach following Treanor’s departure, Levy joked she was ready to pack her bags to join him. It was a perfect match — Levy could reunite with her greatest mentor at a place she’d dreamed of coaching.

“I’ve been with him for three years and learned so much, and there’s so much more that I know he can teach me,” Levy said. “I do eventually want to become a head coach. And in order to do that, I need to be learning from the best, and there is no one better than Regy.”

Levy said the transition was “seamless” because the two already knew the program so well. Especially alongside longtime assistants Caitlin Defliese Watkins and Maggie Koch, the pair felt ready to get started immediately.

Nearly a year later, they’ve helped make Syracuse a national title contender. The Orange quelled any questions regarding their attack. Levy and Thorpe moved several talented players out of position and turned SU into a well-oiled offensive machine.

So, maybe there really was no reason for Levy to worry about her sparsely seasoned attack in January. Syracuse did exactly what she said it would — it reloaded. Now, the question is whether it has enough ammo to make a run in May.

Asst. Sports Editor Jason Glick contributed reporting to this article.

Published on May 7, 2026 at 11:01 pm
Contact Harris: harrispemberton@gmail.com | @HarrisPemb6