Review of UVA Goalie Bud Petit in Semi-Final v. Syracuse

These are my thoughts on the first half saves of Bud Petit for UVA in the Semi's this year.

I'm going to start off by saying that it's always easy to critique a goalie after the fact. There are so many things going on in a game. So many distractions. So it's easy to nitpick when really a great save just isn't possible. I always try to give a goalie the benefit of the doubt.

Some early thoughts: In the first half of the game Bud was simply awesome. I think at the end of the first quarter he had five saves. The Syracuse goalie had one. Syracuse just dominated the faceoffs and had a ton of shots. If it weren't for Bud's great play UVA would have been in a hole. A really deep hole. Like a grave sort of hole.

These times are from the first quarter:

12:35 Bud makes a great save with his right knee or his shin. Wasn't pretty but it doesn't have to be. Get something on the ball. Anything so that it doesn't go in. Great save in my opinion.

9:20 Question mark dodge by Leveille ends up in a goal. Upon review it looks to me like Bud needed to take about a quarter step off the near pipe. He was giving the shooter far side but the shooter had too much to shoot at and Bud couldn't get there fast enough. If he had stepped about a quarter step off the pipe he would have improved his angle without giving up a shot to the near side pipe.

8:23 Another goal. This is a tough one. The ball still went to the far side and Bud just couldn't get there in time. When a shot is coming from so close you need to respect that the ball can go anywhere but you need to know where the percentages are. The odds are the shooter is going to go far side because that is what he sees more of. So you have to play the odds and explode far side. Bud just didn't get there in time but the shot is coming from so close that's hard to do.

5:26 TV angle is tough to tell what really happened here. But it looks to me like Bud made a great body save just trying to get something on the ball. Nice job staying with it.

5:14 Beautiful one on one save. Just stayed patient. Didn't over commit to any fakes and followed the shooter. Got his hands and stick to the ball once the shot was taken. Fantastic save.

4:34 Syracuse hits the pipe. This is always a sign to me that the offensive side is a little snake bit. They are trying to be too perfect and they ring one off the pipe. Bud has made some great saves and now Syracuse is trying to sneak them in just inside the pipe and now they are missing. Shots that hit the pipe are not luck for the goalie, they are a sign that the goalie is good enough to scare the shooters into trying to pick corners. Nice job Bud.

:56 Save. Bud gets down to his knees to make this save but he hits his knees AFTER he gets his hands to the ball. Dropping to his knees is result of moving explosively to the ball with his hands. He does not drop to his knees to make the save, it is the after effects of moving so explosively too the ball.

All in all a fantastic Quarter for Bud Petit. He really kept UVA in the game at this point. One hell of a lacrosse goalie.