SU goalie Brooke Borzymowski looks to stay ‘calm under pressure’ this season

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At Notre Dame Preparatory School in Towson, Maryland, field hockey players need to run a certain distance in a specified time. If a runner didn’t make it, they were cut from the team. This posed a huge problem for freshman goalie Brooke Borzymowski. 

“Running was far from [Borzymowski’s] happy place,” Notre Dame goalie coach Christine Medvetz said. 

During Notre Dame’s first mile run of the year, the freshman was in tears.  Borzymowski had all the talent she needed to start right away, but it would not matter if she could not get running down. Eventually, she reached the required time, and became the starting goalie for Notre Dame as a first-year player.

“[Borzymowski] was on the track the whole offseason, and became one of our team’s best runners,” Medvetz said. “Now, she is our model athlete. Anyone who wants to improve in the offseason we say, ‘look at what [Borzymowski] did.’” 

Borzymowski has been a model athlete and acted above her age ever since she started at Notre Dame Prep. While it’s uncharacteristic to have a younger player start above upperclassmen, Borzymowski has always had the talent to justify her in the starting position, Medvetz said. The same is now true at Syracuse, where Borzymowski has become the starting goalie as an underclassmen.

Early on, Medvetz was particularly blown away by the quickness of Borzymowski’s feet.

“She was a dancer and she had happy feet which gave her such quick reactions to the ball,” Medvetz said.

As a freshman, Borzymowski helped Notre Dame go undefeated en route to a state championship. In her sophomore year, Borzymowski commanded the unit and the team repeated as state champs, letting up only 14 goals all year. Borzymowski’s game continued to improve over the next two years, eventually leading to her to commit to Syracuse. As her fitness continued to improve, Borzymowski became more confident and dominant on the field as she showed her athleticism and agility in pressuring situations.

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At SU, Borzymowski had the perfect opportunity to secure the starting goalie spot as both goalies from the 2020 roster departed. Along with Borzymowski, Louise Pert joined her as an incoming freshman. 

Both players split time in the first three games of the season as head coach Ange Bradley trusted her young players and wanted to both give them time in net. But Borzymowski officially won the starting job with a stretch of shutouts. In a six-game streak in September and October, the freshman recorded five shutouts, allowing one goal over that span.

“It was a great opportunity to show people who I was,” Borzymowski said.

After playing a full game for the first time and making 11 saves against Rutgers, Borzymowski followed up by allowing only one goal to then-No. 3 Boston College. After back-to-back shutouts against Cornell and Pennsylvania, the freshman notched 11 saves and allowed zero goals to North Carolina, then the No. 5 team in the country. By season’s end, Borzymowski had the second-best goals against average (1.17) and fifth-most saves (55) in the conference. Her save percentage was .733, the highest for an SU goalie since 2017.

“[Borzymowski] is just calm under pressure, she is a great communicator and does the simple [things] very well,” Bradley said.

This year, Borzymowski picked up right where she left off. While she has not seen the strongest competition so far, Borzymowski has allowed just one goal in four games. 

“She hasn’t really been tested, but when she was she did what she needed to do,” Bradley said. 

Borzymowski’s agility and IQ in net have held down the back line for the Orange, especially early on this season. Early in the first quarter against Columbia, Borzymowski made a huge play to keep the game tied. A one-time pass from the top to the bottom of the area gave the Lions two attackers all alone with Borzymowski as the only SU defender behind the ball. She read the angle in between the two Columbia players and stepped up to cut off the pass.

Borzymowski continued to move towards the ball, making the goal smaller and smaller for the Columbia attacker. By the time a shot got off, Borzymowski’s pad was in the way to prevent Columbia from grabbing the lead. Borzymowski eventually made two saves in the 6-2 win over the Lions.

“At this level in this sport, you always need to be ready,” Coach Bradley said, “and [Borzymowski] will always be ready.”