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At halftime in all six games this season, Asa Goldstock has followed a similar routine. She walks back to the locker room, talks to the team and assesses their first-half play. She makes calculated adjustments, shares them with the defense and typically walks back onto the field before her teammates to do drills with assistant coach Sydney Pirreca.

Pirreca’s a former Florida All-American attack and a professional player for the Upstate Pride of the WPLL. When she fires shots at Goldstock, it forces SU’s fifth-year goalie to make quick decisions and check her positioning. At halftime, and in the practices between each weekend’s games, she’s constantly adjusting to improve her performance in goal.

“Being able to see shots from Sydney Pirreca … I get a lot of opportunities to get better every day,” Goldstock said.

Now in her fifth season with the Orange (6-0, 4-0 Atlantic Coast), Goldstock’s once again becomes one of the NCAA’s leading goalies. She’s climbed from 26th in the nation in save percentage in 2020 (.481) to fourth (.545) in 2021. Among goalies who have played at least five games, she’s behind just Florida’s Sarah Reznick (.564) and UNC’s goalie, Taylor Moreno (.615).

Back in 2019, she let up 18 goals against Northwestern in the NCAA quarterfinals in what she called the “worst game of her college career.” But since walking off the field after that season-ending loss, she’s allowed an average of 6.64 goals per game.

“I had one of my better, probably my best, season through college that was beginning to happen until COVID,” Goldstock said. “I really wanted to up my game, contribute more to my defense, save the easy ones and then hopefully save some of the hard ones and the ones that I shouldn’t.”

Against Virginia Tech on March 27, Syracuse’s defense and Goldstock surrendered seven first-half goals. At halftime, attack Meaghan Tyrrell said Goldstock spoke to the team about the defensive — and offensive — adjustments that SU needed to make. Goldstock went back onto the field and drilled with Pirreca. Minutes into the second half, Goldstock stood tall on a VT free-position opportunity. She denied Grace Nelson, flicking her stick to the right to make the save and unleashing a pass to Emma Ward, who found Emily Ehle for the goal.

Asa Goldstock ranks fourth overall in save percentage in NCAA standings. Courtesy of Rich Barnes | USA TODAY Sports

“Her voice in the locker room and (at) halftime just speaking out, being like, ‘We can do better than this,’” Tyrrell said. “She brings so much energy that we all feed off of.”

Goldstock trains with Pirreca after almost every practice. She trains with former Syracuse goalie Jason Gebhardt, a volunteer assistant coach on the team, too. Gebhardt ranked fourth on Syracuse’s career saves list (632) and has the school record for most saves (65) and saves per game (21.7) in an NCAA Tournament run. Goldstock and Gebhardt work on placement drills after practices, aiming to expand Goldstock’s range in net so she’s comfortable on both her stick side and non-stick side.

After a year training with Pirreca and Gebhardt, Goldstock’s improving upon her 2020 season, one that she was confident would be her best yet before it was cut short. Last season, she saw “sparks” of success, she said.

Now this season, she’s focusing on furthering her skillset. In between practices, during halftime and after practices, Goldstock stands tall against shots from Pirreca, a former midfielder. She works with Gebhardt — a former goalie — on positioning and reflexes. The key is facing as many shots as possible.

“I kind of get the best of both worlds there,” Goldstock said of her two coaches. “A lot of opportunities to get better every day. So I’m really using them.”

Published on March 29, 2021 at 11:05 pm

Contact Skyler: [email protected] | @skylerriveraa