North Girls’ LAX
For North’s girls, led by Beth Serughetti, David’s wife, the pre-season climate is much different, as the team graduated five starters last year, including its offensive and defensive leaders.
Kimmie Collins has moved on to playing lacrosse at American University, while Deeksha Taneja is studying at New York University.
“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” said Beth Serughetti, who said the biggest challenge would be to “find our new team chemistry.”
Last year, the team went 12-5-1 and made it to the second round in the state tournament.
While the team may have lost its key players from last year, Serughetti will look to her strong returning seniors: Moira Burns, Jackie Kercheval, Jacquie Mihalyi, Katie McEwen, and Alekhya Dulur. Other strong players include juniors Catie and Maddy Antaya and Kelly Girandola.
Players like Olivia Haase, Christina Isnardi, Ingrid Ma, Caroline Sievers, Jenna Simanovsky, Kristin Troianello, and Joyce Wang and returning goalie junior Patricia Pehnke will also be key for the Knights this year.
Rounding out the team are Lindsey Olsson, Allison Shook, Catherine Wherry, Catie Antaya, Maddie Antaya, Jillian Bonafede, Nicole Costa, Devin Brakel, Emma Eccleston, Sarah Grust, Hayla Henry, Kristen Towell, Emily Wu, Nancy Wu, Ana Lucia Dellien, Alexa L’Insalata, and Danielle Siano.
The girls were scheduled to open the season at home on April 1 against Hamilton West.
South Boys’ LAX
Coming off an overall 18-3 season, and having gone 10-0 in the CVC, last year’s CVC champions are looking to repeat the feat in the upcoming season and also make another appearance in the state tournament, where they made it to the semi-finals last year.
Fourth-year coach Matt Foret has a strong returning core of players in captains Henry MacQueen (who made All CVC and All State last season) and Chris Matthews, both on defense. Also key for the Pirates this year will be Alex Rohrbach (who made All CVC last season), on attack, and Dan Nesson at midfield.
Foret also points to Casey Tosches, who was a back-up midfielder last season who has shown great improvement this year. “He has been one of our hardest working players so far this season,” Foret said. “His hard work has put him in position to be one of our key offensive players this year.”
The team’s strength is in its defense. “We have some good, experienced defenders, and we play good team defense,” said Foret. “Offensively, we move the ball well in transition, which allows us to score some easy goals.” Meanwhile, the team is working hard to improve on face-offs, he said.
Rounding out the team are seniors Jack Dennehy, Brandon Lerner, Jeffrey Matthews, Daniel Nesson, and Matthew Padd. Juniors Jesse Carnegie, Peter Cerrito, Om Dhavalikar, Stephen Francisco, Joshua Lee, Bijan Matthews, William McAuliffe, and Chris So also add depth to the team. They will be joined by sophomores Martin Fatley, Alexander Mangone, and Austin Gioseffi and freshmen Chris Clancey, Thomas Efstathios, Alexander Sandgren, Gregory Joseph, John Kwag, and Zachary McCann.
The Pirates were scheduled to open their season on Thursday, April 1, at AL Johnson in Clark.
South Girls’ LAX
In his first year as head coach last year, Bryan Fisher went 11-7 with South’s girls’ lacrosse team — the most wins in South girls’ lacrosse history. The season was also marked by the team’s first state tournament game in 10 years.
The Pirates will have some tough shoes to fill this year, though. The team graduated eight seniors, including its top goal scorer Megan Odachowski, who recorded 50 goals. “We have some holes to fill, but we are extremely optimistic about the upcoming season,” said Fisher. “Our team strength is our togetherness; we have a group of girls who enjopy the game and each other.”
“The question is: Can we build on last season’s success?” said Fisher. “I think we can.”
The team is returning captains Ciara Schoenaur, senior defender, and Kendal Borup, a junior midfielder. Other returning players include seniors Alex Thumm and Corey Hillman, on attack, and senior Brisa Cully on defense. Returning juniors include midfielders Molly Johnson, Michelle Morris, Kelsey Sandgren, Laura McCormick, and Meena Lee; Carolina Echevarri, Jen Yu, Katie Dennehy, and Elisabeth Hansen on defense; and Megan Spencer and Diana Yuan on attack.
Sophomores include Anna Tadej, Erica Borsack, Radha Patel, and Kaitlyn Salerno. Freshman Dani Steifel is new to the team this season.
North Tennis
Last season, the boys went 10-3 and captured the MCT title as well as the NJSIAA Group III Central Tournament title to end up with one of the best seasons in school history.
The prospects look just as promising this year for the Knights, who return all three singles players and two doubles players to keep them as solid as ever. Tim Wu will be at first singles once again, while Evan Samet and Brandon Frank will be at third singles.
Zach Kurfirst, Abishy Pandita, Kevin Shock, Kevin Shi, Varun Sahu, and Sho Yoshitake round out the roster.
South Tennis
Last season was nearly perfect for the Pirates, who went 20-1 but could not repeat as Mercer County champs for a sixth consecutive season. However, the team had depth and talent, and much of that will be returning for the 2010 season.
For the Pirates, seniors Demetri Vrahnos and Julian Richardson will return as the top two singles players, while Daniel Ng, who was a champion at doubles last year, will move up to third singles.
Rounding out the roster are junior Abhinay Tumati, senior Armaan Saxena, sophomore Peter Ku, senior Rahul Lakhwani, junior Rishi Narang, sophomore Nikhil Gavai, and freshmen Thomas Weng and Daniel Vaysburd.
South Softball
Last year, the Pirates finished with a 21-3 record, the best record in the school’s history, and earned the school’s first Mercer County championship title in softball.
Fourth-year coach Nicole Arias said she wants to “keep the trend of having a winning record at the end of the season and to make it deep into the county and state tournament.”
Returning from last year’s team are seniors Johanna Schutzer, at second base, Allie Pungello and Darian Lanzetta, as well as juniors Caitlin McCann, at left field, Jenna Modi, at center field, Kat Philbin, at right field, and catcher Anna Schnitter. Sophomores include Ella Alter, at first base, pitcher Liz Mendez, and Tiffany Gagliardo.
Schnitter, Alter, and Schutzer add depth at bat, while Liz Mendez looks to improve on her freshman debut last year at pitcher. “Liz Mendez worked really hard in the off-season to improve her pitching,” said Arias. “She is throwing with more power and break in her pitches. Anna Schnitter has made improvements on her catching skills as well as being more of a threat at the plate.”
Freshmen Angelica Sitek, Hye-Jin Kim, Dana Kong, and Kate Black are also looking to make a big impact for the team. Arias said the team is very deep defensively and has a lot of lower classmen who are stepping up into key positions.
The team was scheduled to open against Trenton Central on April 1.
