Paige Sim is short for a goalkeeper.
Her bio on the Loyola athletics website lists her at 5-foot-4. The rising senior is about 2 inches shorter than that, she admits.
Sim’s diminutive stature is part of the reason she wasn’t heavily recruited out of Desert Vista High School in Phoenix, Ariz. But three years into a decorated career as a Greyhound, she has proven wrong every coach who passed on her.
Sim is the reigning Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year, a three-time All-Patriot League honoree and an Academic All-American. As she enters her senior soccer season, Sim has lofty expectations, not only for her team but for herself. Because not only does Sim hope to help lead her team to success on the field, she has big dreams off of it. She is in Loyola’s premed program and hopes to one day become a doctor.
How does an elite goalkeeper stay at the top of her game while also studying for the MCAT, one of the most taxing tests in academia?
When she’s not working out relentlessly, she’s cramming in study sessions for the test she plans to take in early September.
“It’s the best of both worlds,” Sim said.
That’s Paige, said Joe Mallia, the Greyhounds coach who has coached her since her freshman year in 2019 when Mallia returned to the school for his second coaching stint.
“She’s got so many things going for her. She’s committed on and off the field. People think that she works her tail off in training and in the strength room. She crushes classes, too,” he said. “And she’s also a very involved team leader. She doesn’t just identify as a student-athlete, she does really well in all of them.”
That’s why when Sim told Mallia that she planned to take the MCAT on Sept. 2, which is sandwiched between early-season nonconference games against Columbia Sept. 1 and Kent State Sept. 4, her coach agreed to the proposal because he knew Sim could handle the pressure.
“When Paige says she’s going to be fine you believe her,” Mallia said.
That trust between coach and player has been nurtured since Sim was a senior in high school in Arizona. Sim had planned on playing Division III. Her club coach John DeMartini had other ideas. DeMartini knew Mallia, who had guided the Greyhounds to an 87-45-8 record across seven seasons from 1998-2004 and returned to Loyola after stints at UCLA, Loyola Marymount, Tennessee and Navy.
Entering the 2019 season, Loyola was dangerously thin at goalkeeper with just two netminders on the roster.
“John says, ‘I’ve got a keeper you should look at,'” Mallia said. “I don’t know exactly how she’s going to resonate in the Division I college game, but he’s like, ‘Worst-case scenario, this kid’s going to be a rock star in your locker room.'”
Sim committed to Loyola in the spring of her senior year, late for a Division I commitment. During the preseason that fall, one of the other two keepers tore an ACL, which gave Sim an opportunity to play right away. She immediately assimilated into the locker room, quickly becoming a leader.
In three seasons, Sim has compiled one of the greatest careers in Loyola history. As a junior, she made 76 saves in 18 games, seven of which ended in shutouts, for a Greyhounds team that finished with an 8-6-4 record. Her 81% save percentage led the Patriot League, as did her .958 goals-against average.
Mallia attributes Sim’s success to her “flawless” consistency as a competitor both on and off the field, in and out of season.
“She has tons of individual accolades since she’s been here but even better, and even more importantly, is we get so much more out of her off the field, in the locker room and in our Loyola community,” Mallia said. “We are fortunate to have her with us.”
For Sim, she finds solace in her routines to prepare for games, which includes setting aside time for prayer — a result of her deep Christian faith — while also focusing on the little details that are key to a keeper’s success, such as the shape of her hands when she makes a save and how to dive at an oncoming ball.
“Everything matters. It’s crazy,” Sim said. “Because you’re the last line of defense at the end of the day and so it does fall on you. But that pressure is such a privilege.”
That phrase — “pressure is a privilege” — comes from an old goalkeeper coach, who impressed upon Sim that taking responsibility for the success and failures of a team is actually a good thing, an opportunity to be cherished.
“Like, yes there’s pressure but with that, you should feel very grateful,” Sim said. “It is awesome to be a goalkeeper on a Division I soccer team that competes for their conference championship every single year. Those things are what drive me to keep getting better every single day.”
Sim thrives under pressure. In eight of her 10 starts against Patriot League opposition in 2021, Sim allowed one or no goals. And in the final six regular-season games, she allowed just two goals, posting shutout victories against Lafayette, Holy Cross, Lehigh and American.
Mallia is hoping Sim can deliver yet another stellar season for a Loyola team stacked with experienced players and coming off its first full winning season since 2012 (Loyola went 3-2-1 in a pandemic-shortened season during the spring of 2021). But the season ended in disappointment with a 2-1 overtime loss in the Patriot League quarterfinals to Army.
“We know that our season was successful but not where we wanted to be. And we know what kept us from being that,” Mallia said, pointing to a handful of missed opportunities that might have pushed the Greyhounds over the top. “Paige would cash in every individual award for more wins or a conference championship or an NCAA Tournament appearance.”
As is often the case in college athletics, coaches like Mallia avoid focusing on specific games or opponents, instead urging their players to look at the bigger picture they hope will lead to success. Meanwhile, players like Sim, many of whom buy into that philosophy for the good of the team, still have individual goals they hope to achieve.
For Sim, that’s beating Army and Navy. She hasn’t beaten either during her time at Loyola. In addition to last year’s crushing playoff loss to Army, Loyola lost to Navy, 1-0, in the Patriot League semis in the spring of 2021 with Sim in net.
Loyola is set to face both service academies in a four-day span during the regular season this year (Navy Sept. 21 and Army Sept 24). Rematches against one or both teams could then follow in the playoffs in late October.
By then, Sim will have taken the MCAT and be well on her way to achieving her dreams off the field. But first, there is one goal left to achieve.
“We compete for the Patriot League championship every year,” she said. “And we want it so bad.”
Photo Credit: Larry French