Alex Hewit is the anti-contemporary athlete.

Unlike an alarmingly growing rate of sports figures who punctuate even minuscule accomplishments with elaborate celebrations, Hewit, senior goalkeeper for the Princeton men's lacrosse team, blanches at the idea of thumping his chest or wagging his finger after a save. The same goes for those occasions when he surrenders a goal.

"A lot of goalies will make a big save and jump up and down and pound their chest," said senior defenseman Dan Cocoziello, who has played with Hewit since their days as sixth-graders at Delbarton School in Morristown, N.J. "But he's even-keeled. He's always focused on the next play, and he's not harping on a great play or a bad play."

Hewit said he's not an automaton who can turn his emotions on and off. Instead, he developed his approach by watching his peers in the cage.

"You watch a lot of goalies, and they get real pumped up, and then a goal goes in and they crash," Hewit said. "I think it's difficult, but at the same time, it's important to keep a level head and keep your composure whether a goal goes in or you make a good save."

That temperament - and a stellar career as a three-year starter for the Tigers - has helped Hewit become one of the nation's top goalies. Hewit and No. 3 Princeton meet No. 1 Johns Hopkins at the Konica Minolta Face-Off Classic at M&T; Bank Stadium tomorrow at 2:30 p.m.

Notre Dame's Joey Kemp, Duke's Dan Loftus and Georgetown's Miles Kass are his contemporaries, but Hewit is regarded by lacrosse analysts and coaches as the top goalkeeper in the country.

ESPN lacrosse analyst Quint Kessenich, a two-time first-team All-America goalie at Johns Hopkins, said Hewit, 5 feet 10 and 200 pounds, is "as good as goalies get."

"He gives every shot an honest effort. He doesn't cheat or guess," Kessenich said. "He's extremely fundamentally sound in his positioning, his stance. ... I've always just been impressed with him. There aren't many flaws visually in his game."

Hewit, a first-team All-American in 2006, was named second team last year behind Cornell's Matt McMonagle. Hewit, second in Division I rankings in goals-against average and seventh in save percentage, could have pointed out that he played through stretched ligaments in his left shoulder that might require surgery after this season.

But that's not Hewit's style. Hewit, described by his teammates as modest, is the first to place team goals ahead of his own. In fact, Hewit chafes at being labeled the country's best goalkeeper.

"There's a lot of good goalies, and I'm happy to be considered one of them," he said. "But we have a lot of work to do, and there are team goals that are more important than personal goals. Those team goals are more important than anything."

Although Hewit is still looking for his first NCAA crown, his defining moment occurred two years ago when he made 20 saves in Princeton's 7-6 loss to Virginia. The seven goals were a season low for the Cavaliers, who would eventually win the national championship.

"And they weren't easy," recalled former Virginia attackman and 2006 Tewaaraton Trophy winner Matt Ward, who is now an ESPN lacrosse analyst. "Maybe we took two or three bad shots the entire game. The others were uncontested shots that we would have made 70 percent of the time, but we weren't even close. He's a big body, he's got really patient hands, and he sees the ball so well. He's someone to watch this year, and he's certainly, in my mind, the best goalie in the country."

The Tigers hope to win their first national title since 2001, and the prevailing thought is that they will go only as far as Hewit takes them. Coach Bill Tierney, who bid farewell to the team's top two scorers last season, agrees.

"I think it's fair, especially knowing that we lost our two top scorers and haven't been, in the last few years, an offensive juggernaut by any stretch of the imagination," Tierney said, noting that Princeton's output has dipped from 15 goals a game during a three-year run between 1996 and 1998 as national champions to 9.9 goals a game last season. "So if you're only getting nine goals a game - and we haven't scored more than six against Hopkins or Virginia in three years, which is a little disconcerting - and you're expecting to get a shot at the national championship, I think it's fair to say that our championship for now rides on the back of Alex and our defense."

edward.lee@baltsun.com

FACE-OFF CLASSIC

What: Second installment of doubleheader featuring the four schools that have won every Division I men's lacrosse title dating to 1992 and 27 of 36 national championships

Matchups: No. 11 Syracuse vs. No. 3 Virginia, followed by No. 9 Princeton vs. No. 1 Johns Hopkins

When: Tomorrow, first game, noon; second game, 2:30

Where: M&T; Bank Stadium

Tickets: $15 for lower-level reserved seat, $25 for club level, $10 for groups of 10 or more. Call 410-261-RAVE or go to www.ticketmaster.com.

How he compares

Princeton senior Alex Hewit is widely regarded as the nation's top goalkeeper. Here are the top eight goalies in NCAA Division I in goals-against average with at least 1,400 minutes:

Name School Years Minutes Goals GAA Matt Russell Navy 2003-06 2,734 287 5.86 Alex Hewit Princeton 2005-present 1,958 209 6.40 Trevor Tierney Princeton 1998-01 2,067 229 6.65 Matt McMonagle Cornell 2004-07 3,159 383 7.27 Joey Kemp Notre Dame 2005-present 2,211 274 7.43 Jesse Schwartzman Johns Hopkins 2004-07 2,912 363 7.48 Dan Loftus Duke 2004-present 1,818 229 7.55 Peter Littell Providence 2004-07 2,294 290 7.57

Notes: Many schools did not record goalies' minutes until the mid- to late-1990s. This season's statistics are not included. SOURCES: ncaa.org, school Web sites