Exton's Allie Murray making final saves for Syracuse lacrosse team

Allie Murray thought she was never going to play lacrosse again. She had already graduated from Notre Dame in three years and spent the following year working with kids at a community center in South Bend, Ind.

As she searched for graduate schools, her mother, Ellen, told her to have low expectations because she only had one year of eligibility. The goalie began preparing as if her playing days were behind her.

Her Notre Dame career included 15 starts, a 9.87 goals-allowed average and 104 saves. It was a respectable resume Murray had come to accept as complete.

Syracuse, though, was the school that met her criteria: a place to potentially start with a child and family studies graduate program. Nearly a year later, Murray is playing in the Final Four for the Orange close to where she grew up in Exton and attended high school at Downingtown East.

"It's kind of indescribable," Murray said of playing in her first Final Four.

Number 4 seed Syracuse (19-5, 5-2 Atlantic Coast) will face No. 1 seed and two-time defending national champion Maryland (21-0, 5-0 Big Ten) in the semifinals on Friday at 7:30 p.m. at Talen Energy Stadium. Regardless of how Syracuse performs, this weekend will mark Murray's last in her lacrosse college career, a milestone she thought she might have already passed two years ago.

Reaching the national semifinals for the Orange's fifth straight trip was exactly what Murray went to Syracuse to do. She's started all but one game this year and is averaging nine goals allowed per game.

"It's just really been a miracle to find," Murray's mother, Ellen, said, "for this to fall in line, for this moment in time that it all worked out so well. Unbelievable."

It set in for Murray at her first practice with Syracuse in the fall. That was the moment that playing another season of lacrosse felt real, Murray said.

Murray's one year at Syracuse has ebbed and flowed. Against Florida on March 1, she made just two saves, allowed 11 goals and committed a costly turnover in overtime. In the ACC tournament semifinals, she allowed just five goals against Notre Dame, her former team, and helped push the Orange into the championship game.

And in the NCAA tournament quarterfinals, Murray made a crucial stop at the end of regulation to send the game into overtime. Less than three minutes into the extra period, Syracuse scored to beat Southern California.

"I think in playoff time, she's playing some of her best lacrosse," Orange head coach Gary Gait said.

Murray's mindset at the end of that game was the same as always. Treat every shot the same. Ignore the ramifications it could have on the season, and do her best to make the save.

It was the same mindset she had when she didn't know if she was going to be able to continue her lacrosse career. She had to take her work at the South Bend community center day by day not knowing if her college career was over or if she would need to find a permanent job at the start of her post-college career.

Throughout the season, Murray has occasionally reflected on her career knowing this is her last shot.

"Just to be able to finish my fifth year and my career back where it started," Murray said, "it's pretty cool and a nice circle."