With nine shutouts last season and a 91 percent save rate, Centennial senior Liz Snyder is one of the top field hockey goalies in the metro area. It is her life experience, however, that also makes her one of the best leaders.

A native of Pennsylvania, Snyder moved to Howard County as a sophomore after her father died. With the help of friends and teammates at her new school, she was able to push on and eventually excel.

Now in her third year on the Eagles' varsity, Snyder talks about the events that helped shape her life, as well as some of the finer points of playing goalie.

Your team graduated some of its key players on defense from last season. Does that put more pressure on you as a goalie?

I think it puts a little bit more pressure on me to sort of create a new defense and really work with the girls to have them step up and fill the shoes of the girls who have left. I honestly think they're doing a great job. There's some pressure, but it's nothing that I haven't really experienced before.

Your former coach, Gail Purcell, retired after last season. How have things changed under new coach Tara Fadrowski?

I think we're really given a lot more say in what's going on. Coach Fadrowski doesn't necessarily know what her coaching style is yet, whereas Coach Purcell had a very fine-tuned system, and she knew what was going to produce results the way she wanted them. We're getting a lot more freedom to help out, especially between varsity and J.V. As a captain and as a goalkeeper, I get to train the freshman goalkeepers and the sophomores, and we're getting a lot of time to work on pretty much whatever we want to work on.

What do you think makes a good goalkeeper? Is it more about physical ability or instincts?

I honestly believe it's communication. If I'm going to go do something that isn't necessarily a norm for a goalkeeper to do, in order for me to be able to feel comfortable doing it I have to be able to communicate to my defense. Especially in a 2-versus-1 or a 2-versus-2 situation, the communication between defense and goalkeeper is extremely vital. You can't function without it.

You went through some very tough times when your father died. Did it take you some time to push through that, emotionally, and play up to your level?

Field hockey, for me, has honestly been an escape from anything that's going on in the world around me, whether it be the hard times that I went through as a sophomore or the social "what's going on at school?" It's been an escape, and I look forward to going every day and really getting to work hard at something that's completely separate from the rest of my life. It's very enjoyable.

After going through a life-changing event like that, how difficult was it to move forward with your life at a new school?

My teammates were very nice. None of them knew, so it wasn't pity friendship - they really, truly cared. It made transitioning to Centennial much easier.

Now it's your senior year. As you mentioned, you have some younger teammates and a new head coach. What are your expectations for the rest of the season?

I think, honestly, we have a good chance at succeeding. Not necessarily with the record and not necessarily in what everybody else might say is succeeding. But I truly believe in our team, and I think we do have what it takes to keep the title of Howard County champions. We want a winning record, we want to have fun and we want to be a family. Everybody has to love it in the end.