Aidan Carroll a 'Steady Hand' in Any Role for Georgetown

WASHINGTON, D.C. — By his own admission, Georgetown senior Aidan Carroll didn’t really know what to do when he deposited an overtime goal at Notre Dame back in February.

His teammates did, mobbing him as he raised his arms in celebration.

More importantly, they knew Carroll, who was used sparingly in his first two seasons and on the second midfield as a junior, was in the beginning stages of a breakout season for the Hoyas.

“You just know with a guy like that once he gets a chance, he’s going to explode,” team captain Graham Bundy Jr. said. “I think for him, as it is for everyone, getting those reps and slowing the game once you’re in those spots [is valuable]. I think the reps he was able to take for us last year were not only massive for us for our playoff run, but I think it was also big to kind of kickstart this season.”

Carroll, a freshly minted first-team all-Big East pick, and the Hoyas (10-3) are the No. 2 seed in this week’s conference tournament and will face Providence (7-7) in Thursday’s evening semifinals. Win one game, and Georgetown has a decent chance to advance to the NCAA tournament.

Win two, and the Hoyas will earn an automatic berth and match 1989-94 North Carolina’s Division I record of six consecutive conference tournament titles.

Carroll has scored in every game for Georgetown and has 28 goals and 16 assists for a team that has won 10 of its last 11, emerging as a mainstay on an attack that starred the likes of Jake Carraway, Tucker Dordevic, Brian Minicus and Dylan Watson at times over the previous three seasons.

In that time, Carroll filled a variety of roles. Maybe even every possible role for an offensive player.

“He has basically been in everybody’s shoes in our locker room, and I think it’s great for our guys to go, ‘Oh well, I want to play more,’ or ‘I envision my role as this,’ and you go, ‘Well, Aidan, how did you handle this?’" Georgetown coach Kevin Warne said. “He went from being on the scout team, developing, staying healthy, working extra. He’s a great example of what ‘usually’ a college athlete’s path should be.”

The traditional pathway, of course, has been altered by several forces in recent years. In some sports, greater player movement has led to less roster continuity. In lacrosse, a far greater factor is the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA’s blanket waiver for those who lost half of a college season when the pandemic halted things in 2020.

That led to a multi-year glut of available older players, which coaches have happily taken advantage of to bolster their teams. But it has also tended to block opportunities for younger players, with the group who arrived in time for the 2021 season arguably having more doors shut on them than anyone.

That’s when Carroll began his career. He dealt with a foot injury as a freshman and got into five games, then logged six appearances in 2022. Maybe there would have been greater on-field opportunities last year, but the Hoyas signed Dordevic and Minicus as graduate transfers.

Not that Carroll was complaining.

“Coming in, I didn’t have any grand expectations in terms of playing time,” Carroll said. “We had a lot of older guys. We had Jake Carraway playing attack. I was looking to be competitive, but I was more so looking to learn from those guys. The past few years, learning from guys like Jake, guys like Minicus and Dordevic, of course. When those guys came in, I wasn’t super disappointed. I was like, ‘We’re going to have a great team this year.’”

After a slow start, Georgetown won 13 in a row and reached the NCAA quarterfinals. Carroll was a regular on the second midfield, his first extensive action of his career. In the regular season, he scored four goals.

Then came an eye-opening tournament performance. He scored in Georgetown’s rollicking victory over Yale in the first round, then came up with two goals and an assist in a quarterfinal loss to Virginia.

“I think playing with that pressure knowing you’re only going to get five, six runs a game, maybe even less, I think that pressure builds a little character and builds a little resilience,” Carroll said.

Warne noticed. So did opponents. And once the Hoyas reconvened in the fall, it was clear to the Georgetown staff Carroll would be one of the team’s best players this spring.

“His hard work is the basis of his success," Warne said. "He really got better and better last year, and by the end of the year, I remember [offensive coordinator] John [Hogan] and I were talking and saying, ‘He’s really figured it out.’ Sometimes, you have to make mistakes and those ups and downs and ebbs and flows of a game. He never stopped working. It didn’t change anything.”

The only thing that is different is the size of the role. Carroll is second on the Hoyas in goals (one behind Bundy), assists (behind TJ Haley) and points (two shy of Haley). And while Warne did import some valuable transfers — most notably faceoff specialist James Ball (Yale), defenseman Wesley Chairs (Mercer) and midfielder Alexander Vardaro (Princeton) — this is a more homegrown lineup than the last two seasons.

That includes sophomores Patrick Crogan and Jordan Wray on the first midfield, Haley’s re-emergence on attack and even senior Chase Llewellyn taking the path of a burgeoning second-line threat.

“I think that’s something that’s been driving us for a little bit," Carroll said. "Having fifth year after fifth year come in helped us enormously, but then we get back to a core group of guys with the addition of Wesley Chairs, James Ball and [Alexander] Vardaro have helped us enormously. I think that was a game where you have everyone coming in and making impact plays.”

And, of course, there’s Carroll, who’s seen and experienced a bit of everything for a team that, like him, has figured things out in time.

“He’s been instrumental,” Bundy said. “We brought some guys in, and some guys have left. He’s been a steady hand for us.”