Hailing from Naperville, Illinois, and standing at an intimidating 6-foot-3, redshirt junior goalkeeper E.B. Keeve is a force to be reckoned with.
Keeve is confident in her goalie abilities, but it wasn’t always this way. Although some athletes do not like the idea of being redshirted, Keeve has a different opinion.
“I think that redshirting, especially coming from the midwest, is an absolute necessity,” Keeve said. “The style of play is so different, plus I only played a year and a half in high school, and then I got recruited. It was definitely necessary to take a year off and train, because I wanted to change the style of play up to the level of the NCAA.”
Since her freshman year, Keeve has matured greatly, having gotten accustomed to the elite level of play that is necessary to compete in the NCAA. She cherishes the opportunity to learn from her coaches, as well as get hands on practice with some of the best shooters in the world to hone her trade.
“I’ve learned so much from (head coach) Todd (Clapper), and the goalkeeper position, I’ve learned so much at the NCAA level, at the Olympic level,” Keeve said. “I’ve just adapted to all the different information given to me, and its truly a blessing to have all these amazing shooters shoot at me every day.”
The Sun Devils have a very diverse team, with players hailing from many different countries all around the world. Keeve enjoys being exposed to such an international team, as she is able to befriend people who grew up outside the United States.
“I love having girls from all around the world, and then being able to play against them in the summer time,” Keeve said. “It’s incredible because you get friends from all around the world.”
Although Keeve is now an elite goalkeeper, she actually did not plan to play water polo, but rather a different sport involving water.
“I was a swimmer, and then I had too many surgeries on my shoulders, and they told me I could never swim again,” Keeve said. “So I picked up goalie later in high school, and I ended up being pretty good at it, and I ended up playing at college.”
As the last line of defense, goalkeepers can get a lot of pressure put upon them, and ultimately can be blamed for whether or not the team wins, leading to a stressful role on the team. Keeve doesn’t let the pressure get to her, and relishes the chance to block shots, as well as help her team win games.
“I try not to think about it. I used to when I was younger, but now I thrive on it actually. I love to get the shots. I look forward to it. Sometimes I know I shouldn’t, but if the defender is out of position I say I can get this. I thrive on knowing that I am the last line of defense.”
The Sun Devils have had a good season thus far, and Keeve believes that they will not only return to the tournament, but do very well once they get there.
“I think we will be going to the NCAA Tournament of course, 100 percent,” Keeve said. “Hopefully we will finish in the top four, I believe that we can beat Cal, one hundred percent. They had a close game against San Jose (State) and we won by a good amount. We have our off days but when we play together as a team we can beat any top-three team. We just have to come together and if we do that every single time we could win a national championship.”
Reach the reporter at mtsteine@asu.edu or follow @MarcTSteiner on Twitter.
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