Sophomore goalkeeper Maryn Lowell goes out to the field before every practice and has sophomore attacker and midfielder Olivia Thompson fire balls at her feet.
Lowell has wanted to improve her ability to save low shots since the fall. After she made 10 saves in the Owls’ 12-8 win against Rutgers on Feb. 10, Lowell knew she had to prepare for low shots. She expects opponents to look for a different way to beat her than what the Scarlet Knights tried.
“The other teams, knowing what happened with the high shots, would probably want to test me on lower ones,” Lowell said. “So I had to make sure I was prepared for that.”
“It’s a sign of a mature goalie, who can focus not just on whether balls go in or not, but how to approach certain types of shots,” coach Bonnie Rosen said.
After starting 14 of 18 games last season, Lowell started the first three of 2018. She made nine saves in the Owls’ (2-1) 18-7 win last Wednesday against Monmouth University. Lowell followed that with 17 saves in Saturday’s 17-4 loss to Princeton University, the No. 12 team in the Inside Lacrosse poll.
In addition to working on saving low shots, Lowell has tried to improve her communication with Temple’s defense. She gets active feedback from her teammates during practices, like what each defender likes to know during the action.
Part of Lowell’s desire to improve is innate. She was the most intense player on the field at Arlington High School in New York, Lowell’s high school coach, Dan Schmitt, wrote in an email.
Lowell said she used to have difficulty saving shots on her left side, so she focused on that area for a while in high school.
“I feel like it’s something that I’ve always been trying to do, finding what I’m weakest at and trying to bring it up to a competitive level,” she added.
Redshirt-sophomore goalkeeper Kelsea Hershey started the first four games of 2017 before an ankle injury took her out of the lineup, and Lowell became the starter.
Lowell earned the starting job as a freshman at Arlington High School in a similar manner. The senior goalkeeper was unable to start at the beginning of the season, and Lowell’s talent cemented her as the four-year starter after she “single-handedly” kept her team in a game, Schmitt wrote.
In her four-year varsity career, Lowell earned all-league honors three times. She is the all-time career saves leader at Arlington with 529.
“She’s certainly on a very short list of the best players I have ever coached,” Schmitt wrote.
At Temple, Lowell said she has felt some healthy pressure to improve from the two other goalkeepers on the Owls’ roster. Hershey is “really good” at communicating, Lowell said. Freshman goalkeeper Olivia Martin is good in the area Lowell seeks to improve most: low shots, Lowell added.
Though Lowell played the most games of any goalkeeper last season, her spot is not certain, Rosen said.
Hershey played in 10 games last season and played nearly 12 minutes of relief against Monmouth on Wednesday. Martin debuted against the Hawks, playing three minutes, 19 seconds.
“Our goalkeeping position is something we’re always re-evaluating,” Rosen said. “We’re evaluating people’s strengths and growth. Maryn had a great freshman year, but that didn’t mean that she was definitely our starting goalkeeper in any fashion.”
“Everyone’s strengths will be needed eventually,” Lowell said. “It definitely pushes me to want to be better for myself, but also I know that my strengths will help them want to improve on their strengths so that we can be the best unit we can be.”
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