Kyle Goon: For Navy lacrosse, an overtime victory over Syracuse makes an unforgettable Mother’s Day

ANNAPOLIS — All of her normal pregame routines were not cutting it for Alyssa Chung on Saturday night.

The top-shelf attack for the Navy lacrosse team was flustered as she tried to mentally cram for Sunday’s second-round NCAA tournament game against Syracuse. Usually, she preps by watching classic highlights of past stars — except one of her favorites, former Orange attack Nicole Levy, was going to be on Syracuse’s sideline the next day as an assistant coach.

Try as she might, Chung couldn’t tamp the butterflies ahead of facing a program she has idolized for a long, long time.

In the end, Chung had to consult a higher power. She called her mother.

“I was like, ‘Mom, Mom, I’m like shaking in my boots,’” she said. “I’m so nervous because I’m nervous before every game. That’s just who I am as a person. And she’s just like, ‘It’s gonna be OK. You’re gonna do great things. I know who you are.’”

Added Chung: “I don’t think I’d be where I am, or who I am, without my mother.”

On Sunday afternoon, Chung was the game-winning goal scorer in overtime.

The sophomore from Severna Park — a Tewaaraton Award finalist — found the back of the net for the fourth and final time in a thrilling 11-10 victory over the Orange, as Navy came back from a six-goal deficit. Buoyed by the spectacular golden goal finish, the No. 6-seeded Midshipmen rushed the crease and smothered Chung, lifting her on their shoulders after the program’s biggest win in eight years.

For Navy’s players, winning another postseason game on their home field gave them an opportunity to celebrate with the mothers who carried them on their own shoulders, too.

Chung’s mother, Elaine Gore, was watching her daughter’s face intently throughout the match after their pregame phone conversations. She knew how much pressure her daughter had been feeling, especially as honors including the Tewaaraton nomination and All-America spots rolled in.

With each milestone, Alyssa asks her mom variations of, Does this change what they expect from me?

“It’s like she thinks, ‘I’m not worthy of this happening, and what are they seeing in me that I deserve this honor?’” Gore said. “I’m like, ‘Alyssa, you just play all the games like you’ve played all the rest of the games before, because it’s not any different because you’re still just playing lacrosse.’”

Chung has always been wired differently than other players her age. Her mom is from Ireland, her father is Korean, and her brother, Cian, was born abroad, too. The Naval Academy student is the only person born in the U.S. from her household.

One of her lifelong loves is the military itself. She voraciously chewed up the memoir “American Sniper” in elementary school and decided she wanted to serve in the armed forces. The other passion is lacrosse — she commonly puts on her headphones and slings a ball against a wall for hours on end without giving in to boredom.

Even her stick handling is unusual. Chung is right-handed but plays with her left after imitating her southpaw older brother for years.

It was Chung’s left hand that Syracuse’s defense persistently denied with its zone scheme, holding her to just four shots and no goals in the first half Sunday afternoon.

The stonewalling was a huge reason Navy found itself in a demoralizing 9-3 halftime deficit. But coach Cindy Timchal reminded the Midshipmen to keep fighting in her halftime remarks.

“We kind of talk about ourselves as being undefeated spirits, which means, even if we lost, you cannot defeat us in our spirit, in the way we step out on the field,” Timchal said. “So I kind of let go in a weird expression — like, let go, let God, just let life take over, let the game take over.”

Added Timchal: “That’s when good things started to happen.”

Emma Kennedy began the second-half deluge with a goal, and senior Maggie DeFabio quickly added two more as the third quarter swung into the fourth. But one of the biggest developments was when Chung — who had a team-leading 74 goals coming into the game — buried one of her shots late in the third.

“When I get saved, it really does kind of rattle me sometimes, and then I kept yanking them wide and high and wide again,” Chung said. “And then, when I scored that one, I just go, ‘Finally.’ And then it just kind of clicked and I just kept going for it.”

Gore could see the change in her daughter’s disposition as well.

“Oh, you could see it on her face,” Gore said. “She started smiling. She started relaxing.”

The shots started going in.

Chung saved her best for last, firing two goals in the fourth quarter that brought the Naval Academy within one score and sending Syracuse on its heels.

After hitting the game-winning shot, Chung went to find her mom and take a picture with her in the stands. It was a sensational part of Mother’s Day, Gore acknowledged, but the day really belonged to her daughter.

“I’m very proud of her — but I’m happier for her than I am for myself, because she puts the pressure on herself,” she said. “It has to be a release to have that happen because she’s always trying to achieve perfection.”

The second-round victory wasn’t perfect for Navy, but it was special. It was the first time Syracuse, featuring one of the nation’s best defenses, lost a one-goal game all year. It’s just the third time Navy has been to the NCAA quarterfinals, improving Timchal’s tournament record with the Midshipmen to 9-8.

The victory sets up a showdown Thursday in College Park with Maryland, a team that clipped Navy the last time it reached the NCAA quarterfinals. There is another compelling mentorship storyline there, with Timchal set to face her former program led by Cathy Reese, a former player and protégé.

Senior Anna Gotterup was one of the Navy players who stood tall, scoring the tying goal with 1:09 left in regulation by cutting in for a quick feed from Mikayla Williams. But, in the closing moments of the celebration, she broke into tears as she reached her mom, Kate Gotterup, leaning over the wall of the field.

Kate let a few tears slip from beneath her sunglasses, too, after seeing her daughter help author a season-defining victory after early setbacks (especially fraught with injuries) at the academy. She couldn’t help but feel the emotional weight of Anna and the Midshipmen reaching their latest plateau of success.

“It has been four years of hard work and really tight bonds between all of them in Anna’s class,” she said. “It’s all showing up now — how much they stuck together and worked hard.”