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Duke recruit posts career-high 23 saves in 2OT win over Geneva
GENEVA – Shaye Fitzpatrick hears the laughs from parents.
![Fitzpatrick, the lone female player on the Batavia boys varsity lacrosse team, is no stranger to quips or skepticism that comes with her chosen path over the course of the season.
Sometimes, the Duke girls lacrosse commit will wear her hood during warmups masking her brown braid. When she stands in the pre-game line introductions, though, she sees the faces from her opponents.
Those laughs and the faces, they fuel her.
"You'll hear [parents] say: 'She's a girl; you've got to score on her!'," Fitzpatrick said.](23b0ea1d-b69c-4052-98f5-6296f05b1e5a/image-pv_web.jpg)
Fitzpatrick, the lone female player on the Batavia boys varsity lacrosse team, is no stranger to quips or skepticism that comes with her chosen path over the course of the season.
Sometimes, the Duke girls lacrosse commit will wear her hood during warmups masking her brown braid. When she stands in the pre-game line introductions, though, she sees the faces from her opponents.
Those laughs and the faces, they fuel her.
"You'll hear [parents] say: 'She's a girl; you've got to score on her!'," Fitzpatrick said.
Fitzpatrick earned one of two game balls after posting a career-high 23 saves in Batavia's double overtime 8-7 win over Geneva on Wednesday.
"It pumps me up a lot more," she said. "And my teammates, of course. My teammates pump me up the most."
Jack Patterson's golden goal, one of three on the game, with 2:42 remaining in the double overtime period spoiled the Vikings' senior night festivities.
Batavia took a 7-5 lead late, but Geneva's Clark Giansanti and Henry Gleamza's goals ensured an overtime and beyond. Bulldogs attacker Daniel Sterne scored five goals to pace Batavia.
Fitzpatrick used to play volleyball, but wanted to do something different. The Batavia junior went from learning to play lacrosse in the backyard to trying out for the Batavia boys team as a freshman.
Batavia does not have a girls program, but allows females to join the boys program if they choose to. Fitzpatrick and sophomore Isabella Irish – who plays on junior varsity – are the only two girls in the program.
"I was so nervous," Fitzpatrick recalled trying out as a freshman. "The guys were all super welcoming, which made my nerves kinda go away."
Fitzpatrick played goalie on JV her first season, and started there as a sophomore. She even played in three varsity games that season due to an injury to the usual starter. Then she missed the second half of the campaign with an ankle injury of her own.
In 12 games played this season, Fitzpatrick has 156 saves – for a 53 percent save percentage.
"[Fitzpatrick] is an incredibly hard worker and never lets adversity get in her way," Batavia varsity coach Scott Williams said. "This is the type of mentality it takes to be a success goalie in lacrosse at any level. I have no doubt that her experience playing boys high school lacrosse will benefit her in college."
Attending Duke has always been the dream for Fitzpatrick, but general chatter told her the program doesn't recruit much from the Midwest. At a tournament in Maryland during the fall of her sophomore year, she learned otherwise.
Duke coaches Lauren Morton and Kerstin Kimel were there watching.
"I usually let a lot of things get to my head, but I remember clearing it out of my head that game and playing really well," Fitzpatrick said.
Through a recruiter, Fitzpatrick was later invited to a summer camp. About five or six months later, the offer came in.
Fitzpatrick simply prefers to play her game, but loves encouraging others to come out and showing them that "Yeah, it's a guy's sport, but you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it and you work hard enough."
"The biggest reason why I am the player I am [is] my teammates," Fitzpatrick said.