Within minutes of Syracuse’s placement in the NCAA women’s lacrosse tournament bracket, SU defender Kerry Defliese felt her phone buzz. When she looked down, she saw a one-word text.

“Brooo.”

It was from Michaela Bruno, Defliese’s former teammate and current attack at Georgetown. The two juniors hadn’t been on the same lacrosse field since their last game in high school. Syracuse had earned the No. 5 overall seed and a first-round bye, meaning it’d play the winner of the first-round matchup between Penn and the Hoyas at SU Soccer Stadium.

Defliese quickly responded to Bruno’s text: “Oh my god, yes.”

Defliese and Bruno aren’t the only two former teammates that will be facing off on Sunday after Georgetown (12-8, 3-2 Big East) defeated Penn in double overtime on Friday. No. 5 Syracuse’s (15-4, 5-2 Atlantic Coast) ACC freshman of the year Sarah Cooper will also play against her former high school teammates, as fellow freshman Jordyn Sabourin also went to Notre Dame Prep before going to Georgetown.

On different club teams growing up, Cooper was always the best defender on Towson Lacrosse Club, while Sabourin was a midfielder on top of being M&D Lacrosse’s draw control specialist. When the two began high school at Notre Dame Prep, Cooper was one of the few people Sabourin knew.

“We’re gonna be friends. We’re gonna be best friends,” Sabourin recalls Cooper saying to her. “We always played against each other and we’re gonna be friends.”

The two were close until their first year of college. That included Sabourin’s favorite lacrosse memory ever, a 10-8 win in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland A Conference championship that snapped McDonogh School’s 198-game winning streak — a national record.

In that game, Cooper was instrumental in shutting down McDonogh’s high-powered offense, while Sabourin took draw controls against Under Armour All-American, and current Duke freshman, Maddie Jenner.

“She’s awesome,” Cooper said about Sabourin. “We loved playing with each other. I’m excited to play, see what she does.”

Defliese and Bruno, meanwhile, have played on the same teams since they were in second grade. They even played basketball together, sharing the same backcourt before focusing on lacrosse. They most frequently played together for their club team, the Long Island Yellow Jackets.

Bruno remembers the long car rides that they would take together, with Defliese’s father and Bruno’s mother in the front seats. To pass the time, Defliese and Bruno would sing along to Hannah Montana songs “at the top of their lungs” for as long as possible.

“With no air conditioning, by the way,” Bruno added. “Just dripping sweat and singing and our parents in the front seat like ‘oh my god, these two crazy people.’”

The two matched up occasionally during club or high school team practices, but despite knowing each other for many years, they’ve never played against each other in an official game. On Sunday, that’ll change. Defliese admitted she was rooting for Georgetown “a little bit” on Friday to face her childhood friend, who has scored the fourth-most points (46) for Georgetown.

Since Bruno is a low attack and Defliese is a low defender, they’re likely to match up on Sunday. Bruno’s excited for the atmosphere, especially if she scores or if Defliese checks her. She made sure to point out that once they step onto the field, their competitive edges will take over.

“We always said it was probably bound to happen at one point,” Defliese said. “It’s exciting that it’s here.”

Published on May 11, 2019 at 6:24 pm

Contact Eric: erblack@syr.edu | @esblack34