Maya Farnan First Westhampton Beach Lacrosse Player To Commit to Ivy League School

When Maya Farnan first picked up a lacrosse stick, she knew she loved the sport. But she wasn’t sure any position she’d tried really suited her. It wasn’t until she stepped between the pipes as a goalkeeper in the second grade that she felt she found where she was supposed to be.

“I think the goalie position, specifically, is unique. It always piqued my interest. So once I put the mask on, I never looked back,” the Westhampton Beach junior said. “I used to play a lot of basketball and volleyball, but for me, nothing compared to lacrosse. The goalie position is a very mental game, and I found that addicting.”

When she realized she wanted to take her talents to the next level, Farnan also knew she wanted find a way to fuse her athletic prowess with her academic abilities. So, when the University of Pennsylvania reached out to her at the start of the recruiting season, she saw committing to the admissions process there as a win-win. With that, Farnan also became the first Hurricane to do so with an Ivy League school.

“I was ecstatic finding out that a great university and program was interested in me,” Farnan said. “Once I started playing at the high school level, I knew I wanted to continue into college with challenging academics, and Penn will bring great opportunities aside from the sport. This has been a lifelong dream of mine — after working hard on the field and in the classroom — and I never thought I would end up at an Ivy League school, but once I knew how great the place is and people are, it became a new dream. So many great Westhampton girls lacrosse alumni have chosen many different amazing paths, and I’m happy that mine has led me to Penn.”

University of Pennsylvania head coach Karin Corbett, who has guided the program since 1999, said she only first watched Farnan out on the field this past summer, but that the junior goalkeeper immediately gained her attention.

“With goalies, it’s how they handle themselves,” Corbett said. “Maya has a great presence in the net, she’s very confident, she talks on the defensive end, she can clear the ball and she can see the ball from all angles. But what really sealed the deal for me is Maya has incredibly quick hands. She’s a very talented goalkeeper, and we told her she was at the top of our list — that we really wanted her.”

After Corbett was able to formally reach out to Farnan at midnight on September 1, the junior set up her official visit, going that first weekend with a group of eight other girls.

“We walked around campus, met everyone and toured the facilities, and right away the coaches, players and campus exceeded my expectations,” Farnan said. “It’s beautiful.”

Corbett said both she and the junior goalkeeper could tell it would be a great fit.

“We wanted her to see what we do and what we’re all about and see if she felt like she’d mesh with the other girls, and it was nice to see her feeling comfortable,” the coach said. “We’ve had some really successful goalies in the past here and I think she wanted to be part of a that great culture and a culture that puts defense first. We stress defense — it’s a top priority.”

Her father, Tim Farnan, also attested to the bond he saw forming.

“Maya immediately felt a connection to both the girls on the team and those with her on the recruiting visit,” he said, adding four or five of them also committed to the admissions process. “She’s always loved being on the field with her teammates, whether it’s in practice or a game, and her love of the sport has been the driving factor toward her contributions to each of her teams’ successes.”

And Farnan’s already made a huge impact in Westhampton Beach. As a freshman, she made back-to-back free position stops with 28 seconds left in the first of two overtime sessions to aid her team in claiming its first Suffolk County championship crown with a win over Comsewogue. Farnan also made eight dazzling saves, the last one 40 seconds into the sixth and final three-minute overtime period against Garden City, which helped propel the Hurricanes to their first Long Island Championship in school history.

Across the summer, she was a part of a tournament, showcases or camp almost every week in July and every weekend in August, whether it was with her Yellow Jackets club travel team or the American Select Lacrosse Showcase Tournament, where Farnan said she had the chance to play for coach Matt Maloney. The former head coach for the Mattituck girls lacrosse team, who is a physical education teacher in East Quogue, was her first club coach that she said inspired her love for the game. During her time competing, the goalkeeper said she learned a lot about sportsmanship and trust.

“We practiced all throughout the spring and summer and I learned so much from the different coaches and players that helped elevate my game,” Farnan said. “I saw the most ‘successful’ players were always having a fun time and being kind to everyone around them. I aspire to bring that into the rest of my career because it is truly admirable.”

But that’s something Westhampton Beach head coach Mary Bergmann said was evident in her goalkeeper from the start.

“For years, I’ve known that Maya is special, so it isn’t surprising that she would get some great opportunities,” Bergmann said. “Maya had some big schools interested in her, and it’s due to her demeanor, her work ethic, her talent, how she treats teammates, how she works with her coaches. Maya is the whole package, and any school would have been lucky to have her.”

Now, she’s looking forward to being part of a program that’s collected 14 regular Ivy League and four conference tournament championship titles. The Quakers have also made 16 NCAA tournament and three Final Four appearances, competing in the championship game in 2008.

“Being a goalie parent can sometimes be nerve-wracking as goalkeepers are the last line of defense, but Maya never seems to let anything get her down,” her father said. “It has always been fun to watch Maya and all of the Westhampton girls. It has been great to see the group grow up and have so much success on the field together. Many of them have been playing together since second grade, and are her closest friends.”

Reese King, who committed to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill the same time Farnan announced her decision, is one of them.

“It’s so special to have committed the same day as her, and I’m so proud of her,” King said. “It’s amazing. We have been teammates since the PAL days and it’s so crazy that we are now both going to college.”

The junior said she still can’t believe that the days of practicing in the backyard with her older brothers Luke and Connor have led to this.

“I would always get thrown in the net with a huge helmet on, but I didn’t care because my brothers were playing with me. Fast forward to now and they were helping me throughout this process and giving advice along the way,” Farnan said. “I have always loved the sport and had a passion for it, from the physicality of it to the mental aspects to my teammates and coaches I’ve had along the way. It’s been nothing but pure enjoyment. My goal is to inspire future lacrosse players that it’s okay to have unique dreams and to find your own path. It’s also it’s okay if your dreams shift with more knowledge. Penn is a not only a prestigious school, but it has a prestigious program that I look forward to becoming a part of. I know Penn is the right place for me.”