2017 Goalie Stick Setups of the NCAA’s Top 20 Ranked Teams
By Coach Damon
Last updated: May 30, 2022
In this post we’ll take a look at the goalie stick setups of the keepers playing for the top NCAA D1 teams in the game today.
Below are the top 20 ranked NCAA teams taken from March 20, 2017, the goalie that defends their crease and his stick setup. Of course, by the time you read this the top 20 will be drastically different.
I wrote a similar post about MLL goalies and their stick setups but today we’ll focus purely on the college game.
Here we go.
NCAA Goalies and Their Stick Setups
1. Rutgers – Max Edelmann
- Head: STX Shield
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
2. Notre Dame – Shane Doss
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
3. Penn State – Colby Kneese
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
By the way, Colby also made this save in high school. I’ll just leave this here for your viewing pleasure.
This photo provokes a lot of questions. How did he get into that situation? Would the defenseman have made the save of his life had Colby not made the save of his life? Was that defenseman than bitter for the rest of the season? These are questions for which we may never know the answer.
Side note – also looks like he switched up the stick since high school. That appears to be the STX Shield also its tough to tell due to blurriness.
4. Ohio State – Tom Carey
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Long length
5. Hofstra – Jack Concannon
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
6. Syracuse – Evan Malloy
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
7. Denver – Alex Ready
- Head: Warrior Nemesis 2
- Mesh: 17 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
8. Army – AJ Barretto
- Head: Warrior Nemesis 2
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
9. Albany – JD Colarusso
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Mid length
10. Maryland – Dan Morris
- Head: Under Armour Headline
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Mid length
11. Duke – Danny Fowler
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 17 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
12. Richmond – Benny Pugh
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
13. Princeton – Tyler Blaisdell
- Head: Brine Eraser
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
14. North Carolina – Brian Balkam
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
15. Virgina – Will Railey
- Head: Warrior Nemesis 2
- Mesh: 20 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
16. Towson – Josh Miller
- Head: Brine Eraser 2
- Mesh: 17 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
Edit: Towson switched starters to Matt Hoy.
Towson – Matt Hoy
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
17. Johns Hopkins – Gerald Logan
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
Edit: Thanks for a reader for pointing out that Gerald Logan did see some playing time but Brock Turnbaugh is the current starter in goal for the Blue Jays.
Johns Hopkins – Brock Turnbaugh
- Head: STX Shield
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
18. Loyola – Jacob Stover
- Head: STX Shield
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
19. Boston University – Christian Carson-Banister
- Head: Under Armour Headline
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Mid length
20. Michigan – Tommy Heidt
- Head: STX Shield
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
When I started putting this post together Penn was in the top 20 so I’ll just leave them here as a bonus.
Not Ranked. Penn – Reed Junkin
- Head: STX Eclipse
- Mesh: 12 Diamond
- Shaft: Attack length
Conclusion
Well I hope that post was as much fun to read as it was to put together. So interesting to see the stick setup of all the different NCAA goalies.
If you think I made a mistake on any goalie’s stick setup, let me know in the comments.
Of the 22 goalies listed, here’s the final tally for heads:
- STX Eclipse – 11
- STX Shield – 4
- Warrior Nemesis 2 – 3
- Under Armour Headline – 2
- Briner Eraser 2 – 1
- Briner Eraser – 1
Here’s the final tally for mesh:
- 12 Diamond – 18
- 17 Diamond – 3
- 20 Diamond – 1
Here’s the final tally for stick length:
- Attack Length – 18
- Mid Length – 3
- Long Length – 1
As you can see majority of NCAA goalies prefer the STX Eclipse with 12 diamond mesh on a shorter cut shaft about the size of attack shaft – which was exactly my setup when I played!
Until next time! Coach Damon
What’s your goalie stick setup? Who’s your favorite NCAA goalie this year? Let me know in the comments.
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I love my Erser II on a midlength SK Metal 2.
Also,
1. Jacob Stover uses a Shield not an Eraser
2. Most of them go to an STX school so while they do have a choice, because of sponsorships, many have to use what they are given, and so the eclipse being the more popular choice over others is not very surprising, as it is wildly more popular than the shield.
Cool, thanks for that Ryan.
I am curious why everyone is going with a shorter shaft then a mid length shaft?? seems like it would cut down on the “long pass” ability???
Just asking as I am trying to set my son up for the best options.
Also how about a posting about how to pick a goalie coach for the parents … while very subjective, I think it would be helpful to set a standard of what to expect, and what to stay away from …
Most goalies at this level have the strength to throw a long outlet even with a short shaft. They don’t need the additional torque a longer shaft provided and they like the light weight a shorter shaft gives them. Thanks for the post idea. I’ll add it to the list.
If you look at more recent pictures of goalies at STX sponsored schools, like Danny Fowler at Duke or even Gerald Logan at Hopkins, they were using what looks like a new version of the Eclipse in the fall and even some games in the spring. Did you come across any info on this?
Actually if you look at the sidewall holes on the eclipse in the picture of Gerald Logan in this post, you can see that he’s using a new version of the eclipse
I have seen this revised STX Eclipsed start to appear in pictures but unfortunately I don’t have any deets as to what it is or what the modifications are. I even tried emailing STX themselves but apparently keeping the Lax Goalie Rat up to date on product changes isn’t in their priority because they never responded.
I’ve noticed this too, there was a post about it on r/lacrosse a couple of months ago but it’s too old to even attempt to dig up.
Thanks for the great post! Maybe you could also do that for women’s goalies?
Great point. Women’s goalies post coming up shortly.
Women’s post up here – https://laxgoalierat.com/female-goalie-stick-setups-for-the-top-20-ncaa-teams/
There is probably something to the whole school /manufacturer sponsorship thing. It would be curious to know what there set up was when they were in high school before they got to D1.
If you look closely Gerald Logan is using the eclipse 2.0 in this post. I looked to see but most are not in an area where you can see the sidewalks this well. It also helps that the pic was taken later than many others.
That’s right Logan has the Eclipse 2.0. Only goalie using it here from what I can tell. I think Eclipse is releasing the Eclipse 2.0 soon – they’re teasing it on their website so we’ll see.
the picture you have for tom carey isnt carey and thats not his stick setup
Hmm yeah it is. #3 on Ohio State is Carey.
Older post but figure I’ll help you out. The Ohio state goalie pictured is actually Greg Dutton. He wore number 3 before Tom Carey and was their starter at the time of the pic.
Thanks for that George!
How can I guarantee that when i throw the ball for a long or even short outlet it doesn’t roll up in my stick and go straight up? My stick laced the same way as Christian Carson-Banister, and I was wondering if you think I need the extra lacing going straight across above that… Thanks!
That should be ok. You can try tightening the shooters a little more so they “grip” the ball coming out and it doesn’t throw as high. You can also throw in a straight shooter above the U’s.