April 23, 2008
by Clare Lochary, Lacrosse Magazine Online Staff
On Feb. 15, Loyola men's lacrosse coach Charley Toomey tossed and turned in his bed, as coaches are prone to do the night before a season opener. Besides the prospect of facing then-No. 10-ranked Notre Dame, Toomey wondered how his freshman goalie, Jake Hagelin, would perform.
"I didn't get a lot of sleep the night before," said Toomey, "but I certainly got plenty the night after."
The Fighting Irish edged the Greyhounds, 7-6, but the loss had nothing to do with goalkeeping. Hagelin made 11 saves that day, and set the pace for a breakout season that has helped Loyola to its first ECAC regular season championship and automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Hagelin has since started every game, and posted .579 save percentage. He has a 7.55 goals against average overall, and a 4.74 GAA in ECAC games, which is well on pace to break the all-time conference record of 5.96 GAA set by Navy's Mickey Jarboe in 2000.
"When coach told me [about starting], I was just jumping," said Hagelin. "The first night, I started thinking about the game. You want to try to make that big save to start the game off, and you're kind of set from there."
Some are born great, some achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them. Hagelin is a little bit of all three, a talented goalie who has benefited from hard work and fortuitous timing.
As a kid, he was drafted into goaltending when his older brothers Adam and Josh wanted someone to practice shooting on, and eventually led Boys' Latin (Md.) to the MIAA championship in 2006 as a junior.
Hagelin inherited the Greyhounds' starting job when junior keeper Alex Peaty was sidelined by bronchitis and a double ear infection early in the season.
"I had about a week to prepare. Everyone was telling me they were going to have my back no matter what, so that gave me some confidence," said Hagelin.
Peaty will likely sit out the rest of the season due to illness, but his hot 2007 performance actually paved Hagelin's way to Loyola. Peaty started every game as a sophomore, which motivated backup goalies Joe Marra and Connor Locke to transfer to Fairfield and Washington and Lee, respectively.
Toomey had to do some fast recruiting in the panicky manner of a man browsing the aisles of 7-Eleven on his wife's birthday.
"We went from three returning goalies to one returning goalie, and it pushed us into action pretty quickly," said Toomey.
Boys' Latin coach Bob Shriver recommended Hagelin to Toomey, who is also a former BL and Loyola College goalie. Toomey liked Hagelin's cage stance, solid clearing ability (.831 in 2008) and calm demeanor. That third trait has proved most valuable this season in the absence of Peaty and senior defender Eddie Graham (ACL).
Hagelin's leadership begins Monday morning, when he shows up at the coaches' offices to pounce on opponents' game film, and carries through to Saturday afternoons, when he commands defensive huddles following a goal or breakdown.
"Emotionally, he is really even-keeled. There's never a high that's too high or a low that's too low. It's uncanny for a freshman to be so confident out of the goal with a ball in the stick," said Toomey. "I'll be honest - I wouldn't trade him for anyone in the country for a freshman."
If Toomey were looking to trade freshman goalies, he might pick top-ranked Syracuse's starter John Galloway (7.56 GAA). Both Hagelin and Galloway tried out for the U.S. under-19 team this summer, but were passed over in favor of Tyler Fiorito (a high school senior who will play for Princeton in 2009) and Virginia's Adam Ghitelman, who began the season as a starter but has since been benched in favor of senior Bud Petit.
"[The U-19 selectors] picked who they wanted to pick, and that's fine. I guess John and I have something to prove," said Hagelin.
Hagelin and Galloway have only a nodding acquaintance, but those nods are eloquent. At the end of the Syracuse's 13-8 win over Loyola on March 29, in which Hagelin had 13 saves, he took a minute to greet to his Orange counterpart.
"We just said good game at the end, and I gave him a little pat on the back, but I think we both kind of know what our role is right now - like I said, trying to prove something to someone else."
Lucky #13
With last night's 19-8 win at Villanova, the Navy women tallied their 13th victory of the season, breaking a win record for first-year programs set by North Carolina in 1996.
The Midshipmen are 13-3 overall, and face No. 1 seed American in the first round of the Patriot League tournament on Friday. Navy beat American, 13-12, in Annapolis during the regular season.
Perusing the Polls
Princeton's 11-7 win over Cornell caused the most waves in the USILA Top 20, elevating the Tigers from No. 17 to No. 10 in the Division I men's lacrosse rankings, and bumping the Big Red from No. 3 to No. 8.
The Division II men's polls welcome No. 10 Belmont Abbey for the first time this season, after knocking off previously Limestone on Michael Brown's game-winner. The Saints subsequently dropped from No. 3 to No. 5.
On the women's side, Penn reached the top four for the first time this season, just in time for its showdown against No. 1 (again) Northwestern. The Quakers' rise came at the expense of Princeton, which dropped back-to-back games against Penn and Dartmouth, and fell from No. 2 to No. 6.
Division II Belmont Abbey joins its male counterparts with a second appearance in the IWLCA poll, returning at No. 10 after advancing to the Conference Carolinas championship game against Limestone.
Contact Clare Lochary at clochary@uslacrosse.org.
