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Kerrie Geibel wanted to see how her daughter’s day was going, so she sent her a text. Syracuse’s goalie, Kimber Hower, excitedly responded with a text that she would be the starter for the next game against then-No. 7 Duke.

It was a big step for Hower — since Asa Goldstock’s departure, Hower had been splitting time in net with Delaney Sweitzer, with the two alternating each half.

In her first full SU start, Hower initially struggled to stop the Blue Devils’ attack, allowing nine first-quarter goals. The Orange outscored Duke 16-7 over the next two quarters, and Hower improved, making seven saves over the last three quarters with her last and biggest stop coming with under two minutes remaining in the game.

Duke’s Catriona Barry wrapped around the 8-meter and was able to beat SU defender Bianca Chevarie for an open shot at the net. Barry’s shot bounced off the post and off of Hower, ricocheting toward another Blue Devil, Eva Greco, who had a quick opportunity to scoop up the ball and score, but Hower instantly netted the ball to stop play.

“She did great with a big-time save at the end,” Syracuse head coach Kayla Treanor said postgame. “That was definitely something we needed, and I think she did a great job.”

Hower has started every game since. Her eight saves against Duke were a career high, and she has compiled a winning record of 5-2 this season using her aggressive play and background as an attack and midfielder to help. But Hower’s background in Utah, a state not known for producing top talent, has made her adjustment more difficult at times, she said.

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When Hower was young, she adjusted from playing catcher in softball to playing goalkeeper on a lacrosse team. It wasn’t until her brother, Chantz Hower, started playing lacrosse that Hower began her lacrosse career. But in her early days of playing the sport, Hower never had any formal training. She taught herself.

In doing so, Hower let Chantz shoot on her. Hower felt that this gave her better training since Chantz and his friends shot faster than women’s players, she said. Kerrie remembered how Chantz and his friends pelted Hower with high-speed shots, allowing her to develop strong hand-eye coordination and quickness.

“She’s really good at dodging when she was in a cage and was incredibly good with her stick,” Kerrie said.

Those stick skills even propelled Melissa Nash, Hower’s coach in seventh and eighth grade, to play Hower in the field. Nash, the then-junior varsity coach at Brighton (Utah) High School, often made her goalies watch and learn from Hower, and when Hower played as midfielder or attacker, her stick skills were “better than her teammates.”

“I loved playing (the) field,” Hower said. “I think I learned a lot of my out-of-goal stuff from doing that, which makes me more comfortable coming out of the crease.”

Hower later trained in Park City, Utah, with Mike Acee, a former NCAA champion with North Carolina. Hower traveled a half-hour up to Park City to train with Acee’s club team 212 Lacrosse. The two focused on outlet passing and pipe-to-pipe drills to work on her “explosion” across the field, preparing Hower for when players would shoot toward the opposite side of her body, Acee said. In many shooting drills, Acee fired “90 mile per hour” shots from 15 and 18 yards out, he said.

Acee recalled how Hower shined in Utah, a state not known for producing lacrosse talent. At one point, Acee seriously contemplated letting Hower become the goalkeeper for his boys’ club team at 212 Lacrosse.

“She is somewhat of an outlier athlete,” Acee said. “This kid can move, she can throw (the ball) on a dime, and she’s aggressive.”

A day Kimber Hower will not forget anytime soon. :smiling_face_with_3_hearts::tangerine::lacrosse: pic.twitter.com/Ien8MoZa7L

— Syracuse Women's Lacrosse (@CuseWLAX) March 10, 2022

The goalkeeper’s aggressiveness has negatively affected Hower at times this season, though. With Syracuse already trailing then-No. 13 Florida 6-1, Hower attempted a clear by sending a long pass to midfielder Jenny Markey, who was open in the midfield of SU’s half, but Hower’s pass was too high. Florida’s Emma LoPinto easily scooped up the missed pass, and with Hower now out of position, LoPinto increased Florida’s lead to six, scoring on the open goal.

Hower was replaced in the second quarter by Sweitzer. Acee said he always tried to talk to Hower about minimizing risk and encouraged her not to try any passes that he deemed “low percentage.” Acee always emphasized risk management to clean up aspects of her game that she can easily control like clearing or positioning.

Hower eventually piqued the interests of multiple top lacrosse programs, with former SU women’s lacrosse coach Gary Gait even flying out to Utah to watch Hower play, which was significant for a player who did not come from a typical lacrosse hotbed like Maryland or New York.

She then selected North Carolina, but when she realized she wouldn’t receive playing time after starting goalie Taylor Moreno returned for a sixth year, she decided to transfer to Syracuse. But Hower still said that the adjustment between the game in Utah and the game in the East is very noticeable.

“The biggest difference is the speed,” Hower said. “Where I come from (lacrosse) is still developing. So that’s drastically different.”

There have been signs that Hower is improving against the speed. Midway through the game against Virginia Tech, Hower made a crucial save when VT’s Kayla Frank had cut into the 8-meter for a scoring chance, but she was stopped as Hower used her stick to deflect the ball, maintaining SU’s stronghold on the game and an eventual 17-5 victory over a top 25 team, which lifted the Orange to 4-0 in conference play.

Following Hower’s promotion to starter, Treanor stated that she and the coaching staff decided that one goalie for the whole game would be best.

“We made some changes after the Northwestern game, and playing one goalie was one of them,” Treanor said. “(It was) just to give them more confidence and more time in the cage. And I thought (Hower) did a great job.”

Published on March 22, 2022 at 11:14 pm

Contact Henry: henrywobrien1123@gmail.com