Emily Potenza has always been a goal scorer who also wanted to assist her teammates.
This year, the senior is happily living in both worlds for the West Windsor-Plainsboro North girls lacrosse team.
Through the Northern Knights 12-7 start, Potenza was second to dynamic freshman Ginny Choi in goals (64) and points (86) and led the team with 22 assists. During her first two varsity seasons, she had a total of 15 assists.
“We’ve been talking about her assists, those have gone up because she’s not only looking to score but looking to make plays,” coach Julia Giordano said. “That’s something we’re really proud of.”
According to Potenza, it has not been a huge adjustment.
“I’ve always kind of been looking for a pass more than a shot,” she said. “I’m always just looking for whatever is better for the team.”
Having Choi and her 77 goals doesn’t hurt when it comes to playmaking.
“Working with Ginny is really fun,” Potenza said. “I got to play with her in soccer season too, so we got really close. We definitely work together well on the field, passing and moving with each other.”
Giordano has loved watching it.
“It’s been awesome,” the coach said. “She still is one of our go-to girls, but we have an addition now with Ginny as a freshman. It’s given Emily an opportunity to see that one person can’t do it all. You need a solid seven out there moving the ball and looking for those opportunities. We’ve talked to her about that a lot and stressed that. She’s really taken ownership of that concept and really put it into play.”
Junior Anna Choi has also been a beneficiary of Potenza’s passes as she had 54 goals entering WWPN’s May 22 game with East Brunswick. The most impressive thing about Emily is that despite becoming more of a distributor, her goal total has still risen. She had 15 goals and four assists as a sophomore and 49 goals and 11 assists as a junior.
In assessing her abilities to score, Giordano feels Potenza is equally adept at creating her own goal or tallying off a teammate’s pass.
“It’s definitely a mix of both,” the coach said. “She has her teammates that have learned how she cuts, she’s able to change her speed really well and cut to the middle and get open and just get her stick into place where her teammates can pass it to her.”
And when she receives it; Potenza doesn’t get flustered.
“She’s really good at catching the ball in tight spaces; and being patient is something she’s great at after she catches it,” Giordano said. “Just being able to stop, look at the goal, take that extra split second, move the goalie and score.”
Apparently, she takes that same approach when driving to goal.
“She also likes to drive from the top,” Giordano said. “She’s great at dodging and re-dodging. It’s really that patience, that holding for the extra second and not just shooting when it’s first open, but moving the goalie and then getting it around her.”
Those are skills that Potenza has been working on for a lifetime. Her first sport was soccer in kindergarten. As soon as rec lacrosse was offered in West Windsor, she signed up to play in first grade at the urging of her dad Nick, who played club lacrosse at Rutgers.
“Playing soccer first definitely helped me with vision on the field and where to pass,” said Potenza, who plays defensive center-midfield on the pitch. “I definitely use my soccer knowledge to help me out in lacrosse.”
As a freshman, Emily showed great potential in preseason and Giordano said “she only played about a week but we were super excited to have her.”
That year got shut down by Covid, but Potenza actually looked at that as a blessing.
“It was upsetting, just because we had a lot of skill that year and I was really excited to just play,” the Dutch Neck resident said. “But going into that season, I remember I was really nervous about whether I should score or whether I should pass. I would second guess myself a lot. I feel like the break helped me build up some confidence.”
Her sophomore statistics were modest as it was a rough year for WWPN overall. After winning the CVC Valley Division title in 2019, it was moved to the tougher Colonial Division and had to adjust to the higher level of play. The result was a 2-11 record, followed by last year’s 6-12 mark.
Through it all, Potenza has been one of the squad’s figureheads.
“She’s been a leader since that first season,” Giordano said. “Coming in last year she just kind of exploded right out of the gate into a regular, more normal season. She has a quickness and savviness about her when plays attack and then this year her real improvement has been in her leadership.”
Not to mention her ability on faceoffs, as Potenza had won 85 draw controls through the first 19 games as opposed to 44 all of last year.
“She’s improved so much on the draw,” Giordano said. “She’s one of the top girls in the conference for draw control. Wherever we put her, she comes up with it. She practices it a lot and it continues to improve every game. So that’s been a huge part of her game this year. Getting the draw and getting possession is a lot of the game.”
Potenza feels her skill in that area comes from just being hungry.
“It’s probably just wanting the ball more than the girl next to me; and putting a lot of trust in my teammates that they’re gonna want the ball more than the girl next to them,” she said. “I have a lot of trust in them.”
It has all led to an enjoyable season for North after its struggles the past few years.
“It’s great,” Giordano said. “We have 10 seniors, a lot of leadership on the team, a lot of experience coming back. We have Ginny coming in and a lot of girls that have played on JV. It was really great to build their teamwork, and moving up to the varsity level a lot of them have played for years together. It’s been great to see them mesh on the field. Their energy is really good, they’re super supportive of each other.”
It has been a great way for Potenza to finish off her career before she is off to play for The College of New Jersey, where Giordano and Knights JV coach Emily Kratz both played.
“It’s awesome how well we’re playing right now,” said Emily, who will major in kinesiology and health sciences in hopes of being a physical therapist or physician’s assistant. “I think definitely a lot of teams come in underestimating North, just through our past history of playing it’s always been like ‘Oh they’re not that good of a team.’”
They are now. And look to Potenza as one of the main reasons.