Nicky Adams threw her arms up in frustration and walked toward the SU bench.

Freshman Kailey Brenner had lost her mark of Miami’s leading scorer Tia Dupont. Dupont then redirected a floating cross with her left foot past Lysianne Proulx and into the bottom right corner to give the Hurricanes a 1-0 lead.

Twelve minutes later, Sydney Brackett subbed in for Brenner, who trotted dejectedly over toward the bench. Adams motioned for Brenner to take a seat between her and assistant coach Kelly Madsen. The head coach put her arm around Brenner, speaking softly and gesturing to the part of the field where Dupont made her run from.

“I’m consistently talking to her and keep her motivated,” Adams said of Brenner, “but at the ACC level a lot goes on the student-athlete in terms of maturity and discipline.”

It’s been an up-and-down freshman campaign for Brenner, who has started all but two matches at outside back this season for the Orange (3-8-2, 1-4-1 Atlantic Coast). But like senior defender Taylor Bennett, Brenner has yet to start at forward, the position she was recruited to play. Brenner worked all offseason to make herself as versatile as possible, but Adams said “growing pains” still remain.

Brenner played her freshman and sophomore year of high school at Suffern (New York) High School. She then spent her final two years in New York City FC’s Development Academy, keeping her out of high school competition. She amassed 74 goals and 55 assists across those four years.

But since Nov. 14, 2018, the day she signed her National Letter of Intent to play for Syracuse, former head coach Phil Wheddon wanted her to be a forward. Adams had other ideas for Brenner when she took over the head coaching job in March 2019.

“Based off of lack of numbers and lack of backs, I think that she had the best ability to turn her into an attacking outside back for us,” Adams said.

Adams knew when she took the job she’d be without four players for the entire season, Adams said. Two of the four — juniors Abby Jonathan and Molly Nethercott — were defenders.

The new coaching staff didn’t initially tell Brenner their plan to move her to the back, but Brenner knew there were open positions and remembers Adams reminding her, “fitness is all in your control.” In the months leading up to her departure for SU, Brenner ran “whenever she could.” She ran up hills, 100-yard sprints at Suffern High School and ran up and down her road.

She was one of the only players who passed the beep test – running 21 yards back-and-forth 40 times at timed intervals — on the first day of preseason.

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Brenner began training with the defenders but appeared in Syracuse’s first match of the season subbing in for junior midfielder Laurel Ness. Following an injury to another one of the team’s defenders, Jenna Tivnan, Adams was forced to start the freshman at outside back in her second-ever collegiate match against Siena on Aug. 29.

The Orange won 3-0, and Brenner has stayed back there ever since, starting all but one match. She’s usually played on the left side, sometimes switching with Clarke Brown so that the freshman is not overmatched against a top ACC forward.

“The first few minutes I’m always nervous,” Brenner said.

While playing in a new position doesn’t help, she’s felt this way early in matches for a while, Brenner said. And it periodically results in lapses of focus like the one she had while marking Dupont on Sunday.

“It’s hard, especially being a freshman,” Bennett said. “But she’s not a freshman anymore. We don’t have classes on the field.”

As the match wears on, though, Brenner’s talent becomes more apparent. Adams will occasionally switch to three defenders to allow Brenner — along with opposite outside back Brown— to push forward in a more natural position, joining offensive rushes.

Against Pittsburgh on Sept. 20, Brenner used this to her advantage, driving down the sideline and into the box to draw a penalty kick in the 61st minute. This resulted in SU’s lone goal in a 1-1 draw with the Panthers.

Three weeks later, she was again one of the catalysts in a pivotal Syracuse comeback. Her ability to stretch the field pinned Wake Forest deep in its own third and won the Orange six corners in the second half. Brenner then delivered the corner on Meghan Root’s equalizer in a dramatic 2-1 win.

“I think just playing and practicing you get more comfortable,” Brenner said, “but I think I still have a lot to learn.”

Published on October 16, 2019 at 10:13 pm

Contact Tim: tnolan@syr.edu