‘EVERYONE’S BEHIND HER’ Fifth-year lacrosse goalie banks JMU career on loyalty, finally nearing her ‘dream’

By GRANT JOHNSON The Breeze

On the floor in her room of her off-campus apartment, Kat Buchanan lay teary-eyed, her two loves at a crossroads: JMU, and starting in goal for a college lacrosse team.

Usually, the fifth-year goalie is “a bundle of energy all the time,” as former JMU teammate Sydney Beckmeyer (2017-20) described her. Goalie coach Matt Snyder said one of Buchanan’s many chest bumps knocked him over during the Dukes’ upset win over thenNo. 3 Maryland last March. Snyder estimates he’s 150 pounds heavier than Buchanan.

But no time for that now. No jumping, no excitement. Buchanan was “so anxious” on the floor in her apartment, she said, grappling with a decision that would dictate the rest of her collegiate career.

It’s fall 2020, during the thick of the pandemic, after her second year backing up former multi-time allconference goalie Molly Dougherty (2017-22). JMU head coach Shelley Klaes had offered Buchanan a fifth year of eligibility — through the 2023 season — due to COVID-19 cutting spring 2020 sports short. Klaes also offered Dougherty another year. Dougherty accepted.

Buchanan envisioned she’d start by 2022. Another year for Dougherty meant she probably wouldn’t. Buchanan didn’t know if she could take another two years on the bench, let alone in school. Kat’s parents, Greg and Liz Buchanan, said there wasn’t a master’s program at JMU she wanted to pursue at the time.

So, for a moment on the floor, Kat cried. She contemplated transferring.

But leaving JMU meant turning her back on Klaes, the only coach from a top program to offer her a scholarship, and the only coach intrigued by the highlight tapes she sent over email to programs in the 2017 top 25 rankings.

Kat talked to her parents on and off for multiple weeks about what to do, though her parents left it to Kat to decide what was best for herself. But she had to make a decision eventually. Klaes needed to know if she had to recruit more goalies should Kat leave JMU after 2022.

Then, after five minutes talking to herself in her apartment, Kat came to her senses. She thought about the team she’d leave behind, the coach she’d leave behind. She had to realize that nothing’s perfect — that not everyone comes into college and starts for four or five years. She said she didn’t want to transfer just to join a “super team” and win, and leaving Klaes’ side would’ve been a “slap in the face” because she gave Kat a chance when no other college coach did.

Once she put it that way, combined with the confidence that Klaes’ fifth-year offer injected in her, Kat said it was an easy decision to come back.

“Everybody dies to go back to college, never mind for the best team in the country,” Kat said. “I just have this, this loyalty to JMU. And once you’re here, once you step on campus, it’s pretty hard to leave.”

Now eyeing a starting spot in her fifth and final year at JMU, Kat has the clearest path to be the full-time starter since she was a freshman — after sticking it out for this very moment.

Heart over height

Late one night in summer 2017, Klaes dug through her email inbox.

She had a void to fill at goalie. Klaes had goalies on her roster, but none were the complete, durable, never-injured package, she said. She was looking for more.

Kat had Greg film her games using a borrowed video camera she obtained from Milton High’s audio-visual department. She then sent the film to coaches after Greg camp and picked JMU, with not many other opportunities besides small schools that dotted New England. Between JMU’s campus and other “amazing” commits the Dukes had already locked up, Kat said she couldn’t turn down the offer.

Eventually, Kat settled into her role as an upbeat backup. Liz and Greg said she’s always been spirited, cultivated by the tenacity she developed playing sports in her neighborhood and with her brother.

So much so, Beckmeyer, Kat’s teammate from 2019-20, sought her out to overtake the designated pregame secret handshake role — a tradition passed down in the JMU lacrosse program that neither Klaes, Kat nor

Against Maryland last year, Kat estimated she gave out 35 chest bumps in the 13-8 win. She called it the best day of her life. Snyder, who Kat knocked over with one of her chest bumps, said Kat’s enthusiasm “makes you want to run through a wall.”

“It’s just whoever is there to accept the casualty,” Kat said about her chest bumps. “People will run to me and I’m like, ‘Let’s go.’ Like, it’s a vibe.”

Kat’s parents also think her energy comes from Klaes — that Klaes creates an environment where it’s easy to be excited. Kat said, like herself, her teammates want to “grind it out” and win in Harrisonburg because of the trust and passion Klaes instills up and down the roster.

“You could never step on the field and you wouldn’t even know,” Kat said.

Some days, Kat said, she has to fake her excitement to get JMU going. But other days are just hard — no matter which way she cuts it. JMU lacrosse played five days after the death of JMU softball’s Lauren Bernett, and Kat said teammates had Bernett at the front of their minds during the remaining practices and games.

She doesn’t know if she’d go into coaching after graduation because of how demanding it is and the need to bring the energy all the time. More days than not, Kat’s excitement is authentic, she says.

But she can’t always be the energizer.

“Sometimes I just, I don’t have it in me every day,” Kat said. “I can’t fake it all the time. You know, there’s gonna be days where I’m down, and I can’t, I don’t want my team to feel that through me. Sometimes I have a hard time emotionally.” helped her find their emails via Google searches — she “completely advocated for herself,” Greg said.

Klaes stumbled upon Kat’s homemade high school tape. She said she fell in love with her mobility, flexibility and gracefulness to intercept incoming passes around the net.

Shortly after, Klaes called Kat’s club lacrosse coach at Laxachusetts from a parking garage at the beach. Kat’s club coach called Greg. Kat and Greg were on a church service trip in West Virginia and she didn’t have her phone, but Greg did as a group chaperone.

The Laxachusetts coach told Greg that Klaes wanted to connect with Kat. Greg said he was ecstatic and couldn’t believe the call. Liz described it as an “awesome coincidence” that Klaes needed a goalie.

But just a day after the service trip, Kat had to hit the road to Harrisonburg for one of Klaes’ prospect camps.

“For all intents and purposes, that was a tryout,” Greg said.

Kat said she didn’t watch any college lacrosse growing up and hadn’t heard of JMU. She performed well enough at Klaes’

Beckmeyer know when it started, but where one reserve player conducts a handshake with every starter as they run onto the field before the game.

Beckmeyer said she and her handshake predecessors look for those to take on the role who can hype their teammates up and make them feel special running onto the field. For Beckmeyer, Kat fit that mold to a T, and she had Kat in mind from Day 1 to take the gig, she said.

“You could never believe such a vicious dog-like barking and growl could come out of her mouth,” Beckmeyer said, “out of such a tiny little human.”

The handshakes are Kat’s favorite thing, she said, and they’ll never not be. She’s been that person for two years now. All of them have their own flair: She puts a crown on the head of redshirt senior attacker and roommate Kacey Knobloch because of “how good Kacey looks doing everything.” She does a handshake with junior defender Lizzy Pirisino where they make their hands look like phones and swirl them around their ears because Pirisino’s “just swaggy like that.”

But she’s sticking with the group she can be authentic with. Staying loyal to what Greg calls an “amazing sisterhood.” And Greg said it would’ve been risky for Kat to transfer without a lot of college film for other schools to recruit her from.

The other two goalies on the roster this season are Caitlin Boden, a freshman, and Adanya Moyer, a sophomore. Kat said she feels ready to step into the starting spot after four years learning how behind Dougherty. Kat acknowledges her experience advantage over Boden and Moyer, though she said they’re at JMU for a reason — and if she’s not starting and JMU’s winning, “I’m happy.”

“Sometimes I think she doesn’t give herself enough credit,” Knobloch said. “Everyone’s behind her. She deserves this and we’re all really excited to see her finally get her chance.”

The stars are aligned for Kat’s last ride. But there’s one task left.

“Hopefully I do get the start,” Kat said. “That’d be kind of a dream come true.”

Read the full story at breezejmu.org

CONTACT Grant Johnson at breezesports@ gmail.com. For more lacrosse coverage, follow the sports desk on Twitter @TheBreezeSports.