Freshman goalie Caylee Waters watches Saturday’s match between the North Carolina and Boston University women’s lacrosse teams. She’s huddled with her teammates to guard against the icy breeze blowing from the snow drifts circling the field when a coach taps her on the shoulder.
“Warm up. You’re going in after halftime.”
Waters stays on the field at halftime with a coach, practicing defending shots in goal. This game — in which UNC won 18-8 — will be her first in action as a Tar Heel.
As the second half progresses, Waters struggles a bit. She allows four goals without a save, but she shows a glimpse of why she was named the best player in Connecticut and highly sought after as a recruit.
Midway through the half, she finds herself with the ball away from the goal in the left corner of the field trapped by several opposing players. But she finds an opening through the crowd of red jerseys to sling the ball to a waiting Tar Heel in the middle of the field. The pass to the middle carries more risk, but Waters trusts her teammate to make the play. It fits her identity as a player — the former midfielder likes to be aggressive and take risks.
“I don’t just play inside my crease,” Waters said after the game. “I like to be versatile and do stuff outside, which sometimes is dangerous.”
Waters added that a strong mindset is an essential trait as a goalie, both to move on from mistakes and to not only keep calm, but thrive in pressure-filled situations.
“(It was) a little nerve-wracking going in … put that aside, and it was fun,” Waters said. “I try to stay calm and not let things bother me, like if I let in a goal.”
Coming from a family of athletes, Waters is well equipped to deal with the pressure. Both of her parents were divers at Clemson and Virginia Tech, and her uncle dove at UNC in the late 1970s . Waters herself dove her freshman year in high school, but despite her lineage and last name, she ended up playing lacrosse.
