2019 NCAA D1 Men’s Goalie Stick Setups
By Coach Damon
Last updated: August 14, 2022
The stick setup post has become a regular series here on Lax Goalie Rat.
If you’re new to this style of post, here’s how it works.
We take the top 20 D1 men’s programs as of March 27 (seen here), then take a look at which stick head, mesh, and shaft their starting goalie chooses to arm himself with.
As always – if the pictures I’ve found are not the real story, please leave me a comment down below.
By the way – this post is the second project of the Lax Goalie Rat intern Jack Nydick – this guy is killing it!
2019 NCAA Men Lacrosse Goalie Stick Setups
#1 Penn State – Colby Kneese
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Attack shaft
#2 Duke- Turner Uppgren
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Attack shaft
#3 Yale – Jack Starr
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Attack shaft
#4 Maryland – Danny Dolan
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Goalie shaft
#5 Cornell – Chayse Ierlan
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Attack shaft
#6 Loyola – Jacob Stover
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Attack shaft
#7 Ohio State – Josh Kirson
- STX Eclipse 2
- 17D
- Goalie shaft
#8 Towson – Tyler Canto
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Attack shaft
#9 Virginia – Alex Rode
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Attack shaft
#10 High Point – Tim Troutner
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Goalie shaft
#11 Notre Dame – Matt Schmidt
- STX Eclipse OG
- 17D
- Attack shaft
#12 Syracuse – Drake Porter
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Goalie shaft
#13 Denver – Alex Ready
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Goalie shaft
#14 Georgetown – Owen McElroy
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Attack shaft
#15 Lehigh – James Spence
- Warrior Nemesis 2
- 12D
- Attack shaft
#16 Johns Hopkins – Ryan Darby
#17 Penn – Reed Junkin
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Attack shaft
#18 Army- AJ Barretto
- Brine eraser
- 17D
- Goalie shaft
#19 North Carolina – Caton Johnson
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Goalie shaft
North Carolina – Alex Bassil
- STX Eclipse 2
- 12D
- Attack shaft
#20 UMass – Sean Sconone
- Warrior Nemesis 2
- 12D
- Goalie shaft
Conclusion
So there we have for year’s top 20 post showing the different goalie stick setup.
Here’s the final total for goalie heads:
- STX Eclipse 2: 16
- STX Eclipse: 1
- Warrior Nemi 2: 2
- UA Headline: 1
- Brine Eraser: 1
For the mesh size:
- 12 Diamond: 18
- 17 Diamond: 3
And finally the shaft length:
- Attack Length: 12
- Goalie Length: 9
Very interesting to see just how much the STX Eclipse 2 is dominating the goalie head market. The Warrior Nemi 3 came out not too long ago and no goalies are using it? Not sure what is going on there.
Until next time! Coach Damon
As always, see something wrong in these goalie stick setups? Leave a comment below and we’ll get it corrected.
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What are the Mes types being used? Hard Semi Hard, Semi Soft?? and Brand
Pocket depth and shooting strings?
Tough to say what kinda mesh just looking at the photos. Shooters you can see in the photos and it varies. Some use 2 straight across, some throw in 2 U’s, etc.
Thanks for posting. One note…. the stick in the picture for the Lehigh goalie definitely is not a Nemesis 3. The side struts are different and the Nemesis 3 has a distinctive Warrior Logo between the 2nd and 3rd top string hole. My daughter has a Nem 3 and loves it. She actualy prefers it over her Eclipse 2 but problem is, it’s not legal for girls/women play.
Why is the Nemi 3 not legal for women’s? I was planning to get it for my junior year, would I be able to use it in High School anyways?
The Nemesis III is not on the conforming list of legal sticks and I emailed US Lacrosse and they confirmed it is non-comforming for girls/women. Here is the web page that shows legal sticks https://www.uslacrosse.org/safety/equipment/legal-sticks
They never gave a reason but I also emailed Warrior and they admitted it is not conforming and they have no plans to make a corrected version of it. I was ticked off and all they would do is offer to exchange it for an Eraser II. I think it might have to do with the top lip curvature and that it extends too far from the plane of the shaft but that is a guess……. I don’t know the exact reason.
You would not be able to use it. We shelved ours because I am sure there are coaches who look out for that kind of stuff and will point it out to the refs later in a game if not caught in a stick check. Most of refs I talked to did not know it was no legal for girls/women’s play. With the Warrior logo in the top left it is really easy to identify. We didn’t chance it but up to you.
Yeah good looking out Michael. I updated that info. It kinda looked like one in the 1st pic I saw and I figured at least one goalie would be using the Nemi 3. Never realized the Nemi 3 wasn’t legal?? That’s nuts.
Email me ([email protected]) if your daughter would be interested in writing a Nemi 3 review for the blog.
Will you be doing a girls’ goalie set-up, too? That would be great if you did.
A couple of thoughts….the pocket could be too deep or too high. Settle a ball in the pocket and make sure the top portion of the pocket has a gradually slant to the shooting strings. If the top of the pocket is too steep then your stick has too much whip which will cause the ball to go straight down. For a girls stick it is best to have a pocket about 2 to 2.5 balls deep with the center of the pocket about a ball or so from the bottom of the stick frame. If the pocket is too deep you can tighten the botton string/lace. If it is too high, feed the botton string up one row on the mesh…..I have have gone through this a lot so been there. You can also tighten/loosen the strings but usually the adjustments I mentioned are usually good enough. If this doesn’t work, sometimes you may have to restring the bottom half of each sidewall to get a shallower pocket.
Yeah I will do a girls setup as well! Stay tuned…
Thanks for sharing. Also agree girls’ goalie set-ups would be helpful. Just bought my daughter a new Exclipse 2 with 12D mesh and attack length stick for the spring. However she is having a tough time getting the pocket and shooter strings to allow her a good feel. Current set up is causing the ball to fly down abruptly when she is attempting long clears.
Girls setup post is on the way. Sounds like the shooting strings are too tight.
Alex Bassil (6 GP) is not the starting goalie for UNC, Caton Johnson (9 GP) is.
Good looking out Sean! Just updated the post with Caton.
Just a quick question – what is the actual length of the shaft when you say ‘goalie shaft’? I’m pretty new to the sport in the UK and I’m looking at adjusting my setup because the shaft I use currently is too long for me.
I use an attack length shaft (I’m just a goalie coach) but I find the short shaft length gives me and my goalies better control of clears. Also, I tell my goalies to cut their shafts down to attack length because on the off chance they don’t use the proper technique to make a low shot save — like punching their bottom hand out, or getting their hands out in front of them, the butt end of the shaft won’t get caught up in their equipment. Because of how fast shots are coming at the goalies, sometimes it’s not possible to use really good technique while making a save. Sometimes you just have to do anything to get to the ball. Having an attack length shaft makes it less likely to get caught up in your equipment or in the goal net (if you’re deep in the goal).
Hi Coach! Thanks for adding that. That’s what I liked too – the attack length. It made the stick super light and nimble.
Varies. I just mean it to say longer than an attack shaft but it’s probably like 34-36 inches in length. But like I said depends on the goalie.
Super light attack shafts can make a big (positive) difference for young goalies. String King has attack shafts as light as 125 grams where the lightest goalie length shaft I saw was 142 grams. In this example, the attack shaft is 15% lighter….and 6 inches shorter.
Yeah, I also like my goalie shaft as light as possible!
How about adding chest protector and gloves to gear set up?
Good idea. Maybe I could do gloves. Chest protector too hard since most of these setups I’m just looking at a photo of the goalie.
Email em!
Email em