After joining the Denver lacrosse program as the first Division I lacrosse player from Kentucky and struggling to keep up his freshman year, junior midfielder Chase Carraro has grown to be one of the strongest players in the NCAA.
Cararro also tabbed the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Specialist of the Year award yesterday.
After 13 games this season, Carraro is No. 5 in the nation in face-offs with a .626 win percentage.
In his three years as a Pioneer, he has continued his initial role as a face-off specialist and has improved and grown immensely.
“Chase has matured a great deal as a person; he’s become a little less quick to be frustrated,” said head coach Bill Tierney. “When a player gets one on him, instead of becoming angry at himself or angry at the opponent or the referee, he takes it in. This is why you go into coaching, to watch guys go from 18 to 22 years old, watch them mature, watch them care like he does. That’s what it’s all about. He’s been phenomenal.”
His freshman year, Carraro played 14 games, winning 101 of 210 face-offs for a .481 win percentage. Last season, he improved to a .582 win percentage, winning 235 of 404 attempts in all 18 games. This season, he has recorded 174 of 278 face-off wins for a .626 win percentage so far. He has also tallied 17 points this season, notching 13 goals and four assists.
Since coming to Denver, Carraro has found role models to look up to in the lacrosse world in addition to his brother, Casey.
According to Carraro, former and current face-off coaches Kevin Unterstein and Dylan Sheridan, respectively, have influenced him the most.
“Face-offs are the sort of thing where the more you work on them, the more you are going to get, so part of coming to college is learning how to put in the time efficiently and get the most out of the work I was putting in,” said Carraro. “My face-off coaches since I’ve been here have really pushed me. I also think they both believed in me, and that’s pretty big because coming in as a freshman, that’s what you want. You want somebody to believe in you and know that you can take your game to the next level.”
With Sheridan’s help, Carraro has been posting strong performances this season, including a 22-out-of-23 showing against Hobart on March 31 and 21 out of 25 won against Loyola on April 14.
“Coach Sheridan and [Carraro] have formed a great team,” said Tierney. “They come together after each face-off, they discuss what happened – good or bad – and what we are going to do on the next one, always focusing on the next face-off with Chase. I just have to give him all the credit in the world; he’s gotten so many balls this year. He’s been our best player so far this year and it’s just a marvel to watch him.”
Carraro came to Denver after winning the state championship his junior and senior years at St. Xavier High School and being named All-State and All-American twice. Carraro also played football, and his football career led, in part, to his involvement in lacrosse because of the similarities in the two.
“I tried lacrosse one summer instead of baseball. I loved it because it was more in tune with football and faster [paced],” said Carraro.
Carraro credits his older brother, Casey, for his initial interest in lacrosse in seventh grade, because his brother played and got him involved in a sport that was generally unpopular in the state. Previously a baseball and football player, Carraro played his first lacrosse season in eighth grade.
Immediately after beginning the sport, Carraro found his niche in face-offs because of their similarity to football and his optimal size at 5-foot-8 and 170 pounds.
“I started taking face-offs when I started playing because my brother took them, and it was sort of a logical thing to do because it’s something that helps your team,” said Carraro. “Being from an area where there weren’t a lot of good players, it made sense to help my team out in whichever way I could, and that for me was playing offense and taking face-offs.”
Other than discussing the face-offs and how to improve for the next one with Sheridan, Carraro said he tries not to think, but rather, remain confident in himself. According to Carraro, face-offs are such a split-second occurrence that the all he wants to think about is being quicker.
When facing-off, Carraro says his main goal is to push transition. He looks for the opportunity for transition goals, which is when he forces the ball down to the attack so they have a brief four-on-three advantage before the rest of the players have time to get down there.
As a player with so much success and numerous honors, including ECAC Specialist of the Year, a three-time ECAC Specialist of the Week this season, an ECAC Player of the Week last season and being named to the All-ECAC First Team last year, Carraro is adamant about not allowing that to affect his play.
“Honestly, I try not to think too much,” said Carraro. “The more I think, the more I could assume things out on the field, and I don’t want to. I want to go out every game and act like I was behind that guy in the rankings because face-offs are so finicky that one day one guy could be hot, and the next day the same match-up could occur and it could be totally different. I know that, so I just try to approach every game like it doesn’t matter how I’ve done this year; all that matters is this match-up with this particular face-off guy.”
As the season continues, so will Carraro’s face-off battles. Like every athlete, he has game-time rituals, but mainly allows his body to take over and shuts down the mental side.
“I just try to let the adrenaline of the game take over a little bit,” said Carraro. “I don’t do anything in preparation, besides making sure my stick is ready to go, but when game time hits, I try to embrace that feeling. That extra little adrenaline rush can take you a long way in face-offs.”
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