Glen Cove caps impressive season

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In 2018, the Glen Cove girls’ lacrosse earned its first winning conference record in multiple years. It finished the conference schedule 6-4, however was unsuccessful in winning any non-league games and went 6-8 overall.

This spring, heading into its final regular season game which also happens to be a league matchup against Roosevelt, the Lady Big Red sit at 10-4 overall and 6-2 in Conference V.

“If we win versus Roosevelt, we’ll place third out of 10 teams in Conference V,” Glen Cove coach Nicole Sileo said. “If we win, we’d finish 11-4 overall and 7-2 in-conference, and that would be our best record in a long time. That is a success.”

Glen Cove’s success cannot be simplify quantified by just wins and losses. The team’s goal differential is plus-62. That +/- is the program’s best in years, and the high-octane offense is the reason. Junior Gabby Schettino has 34 points on the season (28 goals, six assists,) Senior Trinity Hudson leads the team with 52 points (48 goals, four assists.) Lucy Costello has 28 points, Ashley Brown has 27 points and Sofia Constantino has nine points.

“We’ve had a bunch of girls step up and the diversity in our scoring and the familiarity with our sets is the goal to our success and our multiple 10-plus goal-game wins,” Sileo said. “Although we do have a core of players graduating that we are going to miss, we have a good group like Sofia, Ashley and Gabby that will still be in the program. But we will be missing those seniors.”

The seniors that Sileo is referring to are Lucy Costello, Arianna Greenberg, Colleen Lynch, Leah Dwyer, Aliyah Stone, Trinity Hudson, and Sara Braja. Out of the aforementioned, two future Big Red alumni will be playing DIII college lacrosse. Braja will be playing at SUNY Plattsburgh, while Leah Dwyer will be playing at SUNY Purchase. Trinity Hudson will be playing college basketball.

“I’m going to miss this group a lot,” Sileo said. “I’ve coached tennis and basketball as well, so I’ve had most of this group for two sports so I have come to know them very well. They are such a nice group to have coached.”

Despite Glen Cove’s great success this season, the Big Red will not be making the playoffs due to the ability-based conference layout. In Conference V, the sole top seed earns the nod to makes the playoff bracket. Upon asking Sileo what her ultimate goal was as a team, she made no mistakes in clarifying. “We want to be the first seed and have the opportunity to make the playoffs,” Sileo said. “I think next year, in this conference we can be in this same position, which is successful, but we want to work to get better.”

Improved skill players and less athletes who have to transition into learning the nuances of the sport is almost always one of the blessings that a stellar team has. Glen Cove is looking to cultivate that familiarity with the game from a young age. “We’re creating a youth program now,” Sileo said. “Not every age group grew up playing lacrosse. In years future, that might change with the youth program now.”