ABOVE: Fairmont's Alexis Sundeen works on her shot blocking during a shooting drill during a Wednesday evening practice at Martin County Arena.

FAIRMONT – With a decade’s worth of ice time, Fairmont girls hockey freshman goaltender Alexis Sundeen has carried her past experience to a higher level this season as a member of the varsity squad.

And thus far, the Cardinals netminder has been a solid success for her team.

With a record of 7-7-1, facing 453 shots and saving 421 of them, Sundeen’s save percentage sits at 93 percent. Despite her success so far, Sundeen is looking to continue to develop her skills as she works towards a college playing career.

New to the varsity level, Sundeen has adapted well to the faster pace of play, making the necessary adjustments to keep the puck out of the back of the net, noting the shooting of her opponents as one of the biggest things she has had to get used to.

“I was nervous at first,” said Sundeen. “Then I kind of, like, settled back in and then got into my mindset where I can do this. I got this. I have a good team in front of me, so I just got to do my part, and they’ll do theirs. Varsity players can shoot extremely hard. So you have to react a lot faster and you just kind of have to be on time. You have to know where the puck is constantly.”

Starting her hockey career at the age of 3, it has continued to be a part of her life even in the offseason.

“Camps, a lot of camps,” said Sundeen. “I work with different coaches. I have a goalie coach that I work with and I’m going to get into some goalie camps and I work in the gym to build muscles and I walk and that stuff.”

In addition to the workouts and camps, she is looking to be on the ice as much as she can. In her pursuit to build on her skillset as time goes on, Sundeen is planning to stay as busy as she can on the ice with different teams outside of the high school season. At the moment, she is focused on being in a position to support her varsity team as a netminder not shying away from the pressure but cites opponent’s shot placement as the one thing she could live without.

“My favorite thing is probably getting to support the team and know that they have my back and just having a good time out there,” said Sundeen. “The worst thing is probably getting hit in the head a lot. It’s the one thing that seems to happen a lot during the games.”

At first, when Sundeen showed a desire to put on the goalie pads her parents were hesitant but her persistence landed her in the position she fell in love with.

“My mom kind of told the coaches that they don’t want me to be a goalie,” said Sundeen. “But then she would get me dressed in my skater’s gear and the coaches would ask who would be goalie and I would say me and then I would go up to the locker room and come down in goalie gear. So my mom really didn’t know. She would just see me on the ice in goalie gear.”

Goalies are notoriously a superstitious bunch, with each one having some sort of pregame routine and Sundeen is no different.

“On ice and off ice, I visualize what I’m going to do,” said Sundeen. “So like I put one foot on one side of the blue line and the other foot on the other side of the blue line and I just think what I’m going to do during the game and how it’s going to go.”

Outside of the rink, Sundeen stays busy as a percussionist and a multi-position player on the softball team but likes to spend her free time with family

The Cardinals (11-9-1) host Mankato West at 7 p.m. on Thursday.