In lacrosse the term differs, the importance is the same

Lesson 1 when it comes to understanding high school lacrosse: For boys the opening sequence of a match is called a faceoff, like hockey. For girls it's called a draw control.

But they both translate to one thing - ball possession, and ultimately control of the entire game. Because theoretically, you should score every time you win the faceoff or control the draw. If you can, the game becomes a matter of make it, take it.

"That's the ideal situation, but that's not always the case," said Montini girls coach Kaitlin Sheridan, whose team beat Naperville North 12-6 Thursday and in the process controlled 13 of 17 draws. "This is a possession game, and (draw control) is what gets you possession in the first place."

Junior Johanna Kingsfield is Montini's primary draw control specialist, and she has built her skill level into a commitment to Northwestern. She knew draw control would be especially important against a team like Naperville North.

"For the past two years we've lost to them by one," she said. "But from the very beginning I tried to get (the draw) to myself, or a place where my teammates could get it. We need that possession every time. If you can control the draw, you will win the game."

A few miles away Thursday, the Glenbard West boys lacrosse team faced Oak Park-River Forest and defeated the Huskies 15-4 behind a stellar faceoff performance from junior Ben Frick.

How dominant was Frick? He lost only the first faceoff of the evening and won the next 15, better than 90 percent.

Again, control the ball, control the game. Control your games, control your team's destiny.

The details matter

But facing off is more than that; a lot more. For example Frick is a wrestler during the winter months, and many of those skills translate to the lacrosse field.

"There is the reaction time when you're working on the referee's position," he said, counting them off. "Mental toughness. Low center of gravity. Body position. Being able to move quickly on the ground. All those things help me a lot."

But let's go back to school for a moment. There some major differences between facing off and controlling a draw.

In the boys game the two faceoff specialists hold their sticks to the ground, and the referee places the ball between the sticks. Two teammates of each specialist, typically an offensive midfielder and a long-stick midfielder, are positioned by the wing line, a 10-yard area on either side of the midfield. They can't advance past the wing line until the whistle sounds. When it does, the faceoff specialists try to control the ball themselves or get it to their advancing teammates.

In the girls game it's different. The draw control specialists hold their sticks at roughly chest level in the middle of the draw circle, and the referee places the ball between the two sticks. When the whistle blows, a legal draw occurs when the ball is vaulted up in the air to at least shoulder level. At that point it can be secured by one of the draw control specialists, or to one of their two teammates on the draw circle.

Stepping into the circle is where the theater happens. Just ask York sophomore Cate Duhig, her team's primary draw control specialist.

"To start off, when I walk up to the line, I'm walking up with a lot of confidence, like, 'I've got this,'" she said. "Confidence is everything with the draw. You've got to be confident 100 percent that you're going to get the ball. You set your hands, look at the other player and kind of judge how they are feeling inside."

Finding an advantage

But it's more than that. After the referee sets the ball, he walks away until he's out of the draw circle, and he places the whistle in his mouth. Duhig literally watches the referee inhale and exhale to give herself that split-second advantage.

"As soon as you hear that sound and his hand goes down, you just go," she said. "You push the ball out. It has to go straight up."

You want theater? Look no further than Benet senior faceoff specialist Nick Vlahiotis, who's winning 77 percent this season and thinks facing off is the most specialized skill in sports. That's any sport.

"You'll see all sorts of personalities of faceoff guys in those five or 10 seconds," said Vlahiotis, who will play next year at Illinois Wesleyan. "There are some guys who chat it up, sometimes you'll have a conversation. I like to stand up there and get my mind ready for the whistle. There is sometimes the occasional trash talk, especially if the game is close."

Of course there is a bit of gamesmanship in the faceoff and draw control aspect of lacrosse. Wheaton United's Andersen Lewellyan, a Wheaton North junior center midfielder, said, "if I was winning a lot, (the other team) might switch up their draw person to interfere with how I'm doing it. If I'm not winning, (freshman) Tate Stokesberry will take it and she can flick it to me."

Getting into draw control or facing off in the first place is often happenstance. As an eighth-grader, Frick volunteered for his club team during a tournament, which had been losing its faceoffs. His coach told him if he lost his one faceoff, he'd never take another. He won it and has been facing off since he was a freshman at Glenbard West.

Neuqua Valley senior John Kubicki got into it as a seventh-grader, when his club team's faceoff specialist got hurt, and like Frick, he volunteered. Next year, he'll be facing off for Milwaukee School of Engineering.

Vlahiotis, who also started facing off in seventh grade, said there is no secret sauce to becoming a good faceoff specialist. It takes work, a lot of it.

"Ninety percent is just repetition until the skills become instinctual," he said.