AMHERST — As he gets into his crouch in the middle of the field, Noah Rak takes a breath, holds it in and waits, his eyes fixated on the ball and his ears straining for the whistle.
The UMass senior faceoff specialist doesn’t like waiting. Rak often spends the two hours between arriving at the field and start of the game, bouncing around, firing up teammates and visualizing what’s to come, keeping his intensity and pregame jitters under control.
But for an impatient man, there’s nothing like the time between assuming the crouch and whistle starting the play. Every eye in the stadium is focused on the two specialists in the middle of the field. Jump early and it’s a violation. Move late and the ball is already gone.
“There’s nothing really like it. It doesn’t really carry over to anything thing else,” Rak said. “You have to clear your mind. I tense up and wait for the whistle.”
Once that whistle blows, there are few better than Rak in all of Division I lacrosse. The muscular 6-foot-1 Norwich, Connecticut, native enters Friday’s regular-season finale against Hofstra ranked No. 1 in the CAA and eighth in the nation with a 64.1 faceoff winning percentage. His 464 career wins are a UMass record.
He’ll be one of eight seniors honored after Friday’s 5 p.m. game as part of senior day, but it won’t be their last game on Garber Field. UMass has already clinched the No. 1 seed and the right to host the CAA Tournament next week.
Noah Rak plays offense now. It has been decided.#GorillaLacrosse pic.twitter.com/A9huqZsPsB
— UMass Men’s Lacrosse (@UMassMLacrosse) April 7, 2018
Between now and then, Rak will almost certainly earn all-conference honors, not bad for a player who had to wait a long time just to land a scholarship offer.
He was a good midfielder and dominant on faceoffs at the Canterbury School, but because Canterbury was a Division 2 prep school, many college coaches never saw him.
“I must have emailed every team in the country and said ‘Come check me out,’” he said.
Few accepted his invitation. Many of the coaches that did see him had their faceoff slots filled.
UMass coach Greg Cannella has made a career out of finding gems among the overlooked, under-recruited and late developing. He saw Rak at a showcase before his senior season and offered.
“He excelled,” Cannella said. “By that time most of the top 20 programs have already signed a guy, or two guys.”
Rak was solid right away for the Minutemen. Despite various injuries that limited his game and practice time before this season, he improved every year. Now fully healthy, he’s become elite. He was selected in the fourth round of the Major League Lacrosse draft by the Charlotte Hounds earlier this month.
“He’s been explosive and playing with great confidence. That gives any team a big boost,” Cannella said.
Rak spends the days leading up to the game studying his likely faceoff foes, their positioning and their footwork, all the hard-to-see intricacies happening inside the scrum duel. If the clamp isn’t working, are they vulnerable to rakes? Jams? Shovel moves? What are their tendencies if they take possession?
On game day, Rak focuses on himself, visualizing what he’ll do to retrieve possession if he loses or how he’ll start the attack if he wins.
Usually he’s passing, but five times this year he’s showed off his old midfielder skills and beaten the goalie by himself.
Rak tries to approach each draw with the same mindset whether it’s at the start of the game or in crunch time, but he knows momentum often rides on each one.
“When you win a couple in a row and you’re scoring in transition you definitely feel it,” he said. “The sideline gets up and that gets the team going.”
Success comes not only from hand speed and strength everywhere, but from the willingness to taken on that unique responsibility.
“A lot of people aren’t willing to take those chances,” Cannella said. “They’d rather blend in. In the fourth quarter, great faceoff guys become really really valuable. Whether you’re up or you’re down you need possession of the ball. It matters the whole game, but it really matters down the stretch.”
Rak’s fourth-quarter dominance is a big part of why UMass (9-4) is 4-0 in CAA play. Against conference foes, his winning percentage jumps to 81.0 percent in the final frame. In the Minutemen’s 9-8 come-from-behind win at Delaware, Rak won all six draws in the fourth.
Rak doesn’t know what his numbers are in any quarter, and didn’t know that UMass even kept a career faceoff mark or that he was close to it until he’d broken it.
“I didn’t know that was a thing, the UMass faceoff record. I just want to win,” said Rak, who expected there were more victories coming. “We lost a couple early but that really doesn’t matter now cause we’re rolling and going good. Being in the moment of winning is the greatest thing I’ve been part of.”
Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage