One day in third grade, Laura Hurff was “it” in a game of tag. After less than two minutes, Hurff had tagged everyone.

She came up to her teacher, who happened to be her mother, Linda, and asked, “What’s next?” Linda remembered making sure not to make her daughter “it” again so the game would last longer.

“That’s probably her biggest asset,” Linda said. “Her speed. She’s used it. I’ve always said she’s been given a God-given talent and that’s what you need to do, use it.”

That speed helped Hurff become a three-time All-American in field hockey at Syracuse. She was part of the first women’s national championship at SU as a member of the 2015 field hockey team. She hopes to continue her field hockey career as an Olympian for the United States. For now, in her last semester as an undergraduate, she’s returned to her first sport, lacrosse, as a defender for the Orange (2-0) women’s lacrosse team. Hurff said she hopes it’s just another stepping stone toward her field hockey goals.

“Her former high school coach was an old friend,” SU head coach Gary Gait said. “… She mentioned it when she was coming, you’ve got a really good lacrosse player that plays field hockey … Sure enough, we got that opportunity to have her.”

Linda played college lacrosse herself at Delaware. She was a member of the second-ever NCAA Division I women’s lacrosse national title team in 1983, her senior year.

Syracuse field hockey head coach Ange Bradley, who played both lacrosse and field hockey at UD a few years after Linda graduated, was at that national championship game, Linda remembered. Bradley remembered Linda when Hurff first came to SU, Linda said.

Because Linda had devoted much of her life to lacrosse, it was natural for Hurff to pick up a stick early in elementary school, trailing her mother to camps when she couldn’t be left at home. Hurff began playing club lacrosse soon thereafter.

“She just pushed me to be the best that I could,” Hurff said, “and to be honest, without my mom coaching me when I was little I don’t know where I would have been.”

 

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In middle school, Linda was Hurff’s coach, meaning Hurff was never going to have a free pass. One gameday, Hurff went to the nurse’s office and her temperature was around 102 degrees. So Linda brought her daughter to her office in the school, had her sleep all day and made sure Hurff played well enough in the game’s first half that she could sit out the second.

“If I told her to go through this wall,” Linda said, “she would have run through it.”

In high school, Hurff played field hockey, basketball and lacrosse. Linda said she thinks her daughter could have played D-I lacrosse, and Hurff said the head coach at Delaware reached out about the possibility. But Hurff always wanted to play in the Olympics, and field hockey is in the Olympics, while lacrosse isn’t.

Syracuse, which had turned into an NCAA tournament regular under Bradley, became the place for Hurff to use her speed. Though Hurff didn’t play her mother’s sport, she chose to wear the No. 14 that Linda wore at UD. By Hurff’s sophomore season, she had become the key cog at the heart of SU’s midfield, the year SU won its national title. She had reached the collegiate peak but was still chasing her Olympic dream.

As a high schooler, Hurff spent time with the United States under-17 national team. The summer before her junior year, she played with the U.S. under-21 team. All that’s left to reach is the senior team. She’ll be away from Syracuse twice during the season, once for a camp later this week in Chula Vista, California, where the U.S. will take on Canada, and once over spring break.

“My hope is that right after college, (U.S. head coach Janneke Schopman will) pull me up officially to the team, and we’re still waiting for that,” Hurff said. “I’m not gonna say that it’s definitely gonna happen because I have no idea but that’s just what I’m hoping will happen.”

When Hurff reached out to Gait after the field hockey season ended, first via email and then in his office, she wasn’t sure what to expect. She and Linda had spoken about using a graduate year to play lacrosse, but Hurff took the initiative to finish her senior year with the sport.

She feels lacrosse aids her chances of field hockey success. As a defender in lacrosse, Hurff gets opportunities to catch up with attackers, get in front of them and turn them. It’s a skill she hopes will translate to field hockey.

Hurff isn’t sure how much she’ll play for SU. Hurff told her mother to get to games early, Linda said, to make sure she can watch her daughter play during warmups.

But for the Syracuse senior, it’s not about the playing time. It’s about a chance to further her field hockey career. And it’s coming full circle in the first sport Hurff ever played.

Two years from now, in Tokyo, the U.S. field hockey team will be playing in the Olympics. Hurff said she hopes she’ll be there playing, in the sport she chose to reach that peak.

“Her mindset is, ‘I’m going, mom. I’m going to be there,’” Linda said.

Published on February 19, 2018 at 9:53 pm

Contact Billy: wmheyen@syr.edu | @Wheyen3