Players used youth hockey

By KAIDEN BRIDGES The Breeze

JMU lacrosse freshman attacker Maddie Epke first wore ice skates a month after she learned to walk. Redshirt senior goalkeeper Kat Buchanan started on skates when she was about 2 years old, picking up her first hockey stick when she was 3. Redshirt sophomore attacker Olivia Mattis joined her first ice hockey team when she was 5.

All three said the skills they grew up learning while playing hockey benefitted them as they now play lacrosse for the No. 4 team in the nation.

“I’d credit most of my athletic ability to hockey,” Buchanan said.

Mattis said, growing up in Minnesota, ice hockey surrounded her life from a young age. She said her dad, Matthew Mattis, can be credited for her early start in hockey, as he threw her into the sport as soon as she was able.

Like Mattis, Epke’s father, Thomas Epke, was a big influence on her ice hockey career as one of her coaches.

Buchanan said her hockey career started with small league games until she transferred into bigger, more travel-style hockey teams, where she played with the boys’ teams until she was about 14 years old. She then transitioned to her high school’s ice hockey team as well as her club team, the Massachusetts Spitfires.

Now playing lacrosse, Mattis said much of the technique she’s developed is rooted from her years on the ice.

“I would say that the stick work in hockey has helped me a lot with being able to do some things, like cradling low and shooting low,” Mattis said. “A lot of other people don’t really know how to do that just because in hockey everything is on the ground, when in lacrosse, you don’t really see a lot of that. My cradling and unique stick work is very much from hockey.”

During her hockey career, Buchanan was actually a forward, not a goalkeeper. In her switch in both sports and positions, she said one of the biggest differences she saw was through visual points and focus.

Buchanan said her jump from a hockey forward to a lacrosse goalkeeper was stemmed from the amount of running in lacrosse.

“I don’t like long running, skating is so different,” Buchanan laughed. “Whenever I run now I get laughed at because of my skating form. I kind of ‘glide’ when I run, I don’t look fast. I push off in a way that I would if I had skates on, so I just think it’s better off if I didn’t have to run.”

Buchanan said ice hockey is beneficial for lateral and quick movements accompanied by short bursts, and for her specifically as a goalie, her time on the ice has helped her be explosive and step up to the ball when needed.

Epke played as a lacrosse midfielder throughout her high school and travel career but has moved into the attacking position for JMU. She said the shift in positions has helped her see how the two sports go hand-in-hand, while still noticing the bigger differences within the two sports, specifically the speed of play and heavier ball-and-stick control that’s needed in lacrosse.

“In lacrosse, the ball actually sits in your stick, while in hockey, someone could literally poke the puck away from you, so it’s a lot different,” Epke said. “But then the rest, I think, is very similar. Hockey is a game of keeping your head up, making good passes and I would say lacrosse is the same.”

But aside from differences, Epke highlighted how the mentality and visions of both sports are the same.

“It’s all about taking chances on yourself,” Epke said. “It’s about keeping your head up and being able to see the best option on the field.”

Despite no longer playing ice hockey, all three said they still enjoy the sport and have found it holding a place in their lives.

Mattis said she grew up not only as a Minnesota Wild fan but also a Chicago Blackhawks supporter.

“When I was 13 years old, I got to redo my room. I did it with a Blackhawks theme,” Mattis said. “I got a whole bunch of Fat Heads to put on my wall and even got a Chicago Blackhawks rug.”

Buchanan, living in Massachusetts, said she’s always been a Boston Bruins fan, and is hopeful this year for a playoff run. She said their record this year after being projected as one of the worst teams in the NHL has been fun to watch and feels like it resonates with JMU lacrosse, as it recently won the American Athletic Conference (AAC) champions in their inaugural season in the conference.

“It’s really interesting and cool to see a group of guys that weren’t necessarily supposed to be great come together and just prove everybody wrong,” Buchanan said. “It kind of reminds me of what we have going on here on the lacrosse team. It’s cool to see and it’s emotional.”

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

Evan Weaver breezeopinion@gmail.com EDITOR EMAIL @Breeze_Opinion