Alyssa Costantino holds her goalie stick in her hand, mimicking the routine she uses time and time again in net as a ball flies toward her goal.

The top hand should lead to the ball to make a save. Step to the ball, not the shooter. A proper goaltender brings forward the back leg and ends in the position she started.

The more time a goalie is in the proper stance, the better chance she has at making the save. Good position consists of plenty of things: feet shoulder-width apart, stick parallel to the body, top hand gripping the bottom of the stick head, and eyes focused on the ball.

And the final part is mental. Reacting, not thinking. With everything put together to stop a shot, the Syracuse women’s lacrosse freshman goalie said goaltender is the toughest position to play in the sport.

‘It’s all mental, really,’ Costantino said. ‘Obviously it’s the last line of defense, so the more a goalie can keep players out, the more you realize this might be the hardest position on the field.’

Such is life for the two goalies who have seen the most time this season — starter and team captain Liz Hogan and freshman backup Costantino.

They are playing, as Costantino said, perhaps the toughest position on the field. And in the Orange’s recent two-game winning streak and perfect 3-0 start in Big East play, the goaltending played a major part. After the Orange allowed double-digit goals in all but two nonconference games, Hogan has given up just 6.7 goals per game in Big East play.

Hogan credits the recent turnaround to an increase in preparation.

‘I don’t know if it’s so much prediction, but it’s a lot of preparation,’ Hogan said. ‘I’ve certainly been taking a lot more shots in practice. The attackers have been getting a lot of shots off. It’s really just getting in the mindset of, ‘I’m not going to let one go by me.”

This past week, Hogan earned her third career Big East Player of the Week award for a performance that included 26 saves, seven groundballs and four caused turnovers in the Orange’s past three games. Both games against Connecticut and Notre Dame ended in SU victories.

On the season, she leads the conference with 8.8 saves per game. She has been the ‘quarterback’ on the field for the Orange, as teammate Costantino describes the goaltender position.

‘You have to be able to communicate to your players on the field because you have a bird’s-eye view of everything,’ Costantino said. ‘You’re almost the quarterback out there, so helping your defense and letting them know what they can’t see is huge.’

Costantino has also contributed to the Orange’s success at the position in her first year at SU. She began goaltending in third grade because her father was a goalie, and she wanted to be just like him. In high school, she received multiple distinctions, including All-Suffolk County and 2010 Under Armour All-American honors.

This season, Costantino has played in three games for the Orange and earned the first victory of her career. She is the heir apparent to the senior Hogan next season.

After SU’s season-opening victory over Colgate on Feb. 17, SU head coach Gary Gait said he was impressed with the play of Costantino, who was making her first career start.

‘For a freshman coming in and starting, I thought she did a great job,’ Gait said. ‘That’s a tough situation to be in, coming in and knowing that you got the Goalie of the Year (Hogan) sitting up in the stands and watching you, and you have to jump in goal and try and lead the defense.’

In the end, the two SU goalies go back to that routine. The only thing a lacrosse goalie can do is cut off the angle and get into a position for a chance to make the save.

To do that, she must remain both physically and mentally secure.

‘We try to keep each other in check,’ Hogan said of the goaltenders’ relationship. ‘If someone’s having a bad day, we can pull each other up. It’s all mental.’

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Published on April 11, 2011 at 12:00 pm