Women's Lacrosse: From Colorado to Princeton’s net

In addition to having more depth at the goalie position this season, the Tigers can also breathe easier knowing that sophomore Erin Tochihara is leading the squad between the pipes. The confidence Tochihara inspires in her team — and the fear she invokes in her opponents — is warranted, as she has put up a best-in-the-nation .578 save percentage and a 7.03 goals-against average so far this season.

“I’m trying to stay more consistent this year,” Tochihara said. “Last year, I had a lot of up and down games: I could make big saves, but sometimes I would go out there and not do anything. Last year as a freshman, I really didn’t know what to expect, but this year I am more confident in my abilities. I take the field knowing that I can do a good job.”

Tochihara has played 673 minutes, 59 seconds of the 780 minutes of game time this season, and her monster numbers have aided the Tigers on the field and earned her recognition on the national level.

Last week, Tochihara and senior midfielder and co-captain Holly McGarvie were nominated for the Tewaaraton Trophy, the award given to the top varsity players in collegiate men’s and women’s lacrosse in the United States. There are 25 nominees for this year’s award, and just six of them are underclassmen.

“I’m really excited about it,” Tochihara said. “I had no idea I was going to be nominated. I had, like, six people tell me before I even [saw it].”

Tochihara’s road to becoming one of Princeton’s star players began in a state better known for its mountains than its sports teams: Colorado. Though the Centennial State is far from a lacrosse hotspot, Tochihara developed her defensive prowess and love for the game there.

“I lived in Colorado my whole life, but I ended up moving into the city in fourth grade, and lacrosse was really big there,” Tochihara said. “I’d never heard of lacrosse before then, but I joined the team. I played basketball and a lot of other sports growing up, but in high school I started to focus on lacrosse.”

By the time Tochihara started looking at colleges, it was obvious that the Tigers were desperate for a new goalie. Not only was starting goalie Colleen O’Boyle ’07 graduating, but her only backup was then-freshman Kaitlyn Perelle, a two-sport athlete who wouldn’t be around the next fall as she played for the field hockey team.

Luckily for the Tigers, Tochihara chose Princeton.

“As a goalie, I had to look at schools that actually needed a goalie,” Tochihara said. “I got a letter from Dartmouth early on saying, ‘Sorry, we have lots of goalies.’ Half of my [potential] schools were taken off the map because they didn’t need a goalie. I was looking for a school where I would have a shot at playing.”

Unfortunately for the Tigers, it seemed at first that Tochihara might have bitten off more than she could chew, as the burden of being the team’s only goalie during the fall season proved a heavy load for the fresh-faced Colorado native.

“Princeton absolutely needed a goalie,” Tochihara said. “One goalie per team is a really difficult situation to have. It’s really hard to be in a shooting drill for 15 minutes straight … Shots are coming at you, and you are just, like, ‘Man, this sucks.’ My freshman fall, I was really stressed out. During practices, I didn’t know the routine of the team, and I didn’t know the team that well, so it was really, really difficult to try and find my groove.”

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Despite the intensity of the fall, Tochihara stuck with it and ended up playing in 12 games in her freshman season. By the end of the year, Tochihara was the Tigers’ starter, and she was in net for both of Princeton’s NCAA tournament games.

Even with all her success and potential, going into the 2009 season, Tochihara hit a potentially devastating wall during her time with the team in Australia. The Tigers traveled Down Under to compete against the Australian national women’s lacrosse team — the reigning world champion — and the winter-break trip provided some unexpected difficulties for the up-and-coming goalie.

“Australia was a great trip, and it was really fun to play a national team, but it was really rough for the goalies,” Tochihara said. “You are out there playing the best team in the world, and as the defending world champs they scored a lot. For a goalie’s ego, it was kind of challenging, and at a point in December I was, like, ‘OK, I’m kind of tired of just standing in here and getting nailed.’ ”

Fortunately for fans of the Orange and Black, those feelings of frustration were short-lived.

“That Australia trip came at a time where I had all of January to focus on studying and other things besides lacrosse,” Tochihara said. “So when I came back in February, I was excited for the season and ready to go.”

So in her travels from the Rocky Mountains to Princeton to the Australian outback, what has Tochihara learned that has allowed her to almost singlehandedly transform Princeton’s protection of the net?

“The goalie position is super-mental,” Tochihara said. “A lot of times, a team will start scoring three, four, five goals, and if the goalie can just get one save in there, it can change the momentum of the game. But it’s really hard to not get down on yourself in the middle of the game when you’ve had a few goals scored on you. This year, I’m letting things go and focusing on the new shot. You just can’t focus on what happens in the past.”