Holliston Girls Basketball Facing Tourney Test at Natick

girls basketball coach Kristen Hedrick has three goals for her teams heading into each season: improve their record, get better in the second half of the season and qualify for the state tournament.

The Panthers have done all three, finishing the regular season with a 13-7 record (12-6 Tri Valley League) to earn a No. 10 seed heading into their Division 2 South First Round matchup with No. 7 Natick (15-5) on Wednesday night (7 p.m.).

“All the athletes on the team are top performers in various capacities,” said Hedrick, who is in her 10th year as a coach at Holliston. “Each one individually has rallied behind each other and formed a true team on and off the basketball court.”

Holliston enters the tournament coming off of in the Sharon-Shooutout Tournament. Despite the loss, Hedrick was pleased with her team’s performance.

“Although we lost, it was a great team effort, and we have been able to use the loss to our advantage to prepare for the upcoming MIAA tournament,” Hedrick said.

The Panthers have been led by junior forward , who leads the team with 12.5 points and eight rebounds per game. Sostilio was named a first team Tri-Valley League All-Star.

Her sister, senior center Vicky Sostilio, has also had a productive season, averaging 9.6 points and six rebounds for Holliston. In addition, junior Ashley Higgins has been a key asset for the Panthers.

“Vicky and Ashley have performed admirably this year, and both have provided strong leadership skills on and off the court,” said Hedrick. “They are a great representation of Holliston basketball and the Holliston community.”

Hedrick realizes that the competition in the state tournament is much tougher than regular-season play and realizes that her team will need to play at a higher level to match their upcoming opponents.

“Our game plan is to raise our level of play to exceed our own expectations and to advance in the tournament,” Hedrick said.

The Panthers will have their work cut out for them against Natick, which comes from the highly-competitive Bay State Conference.

The winner will move on to the quarterfinals Friday night (7 p.m.), where it will face the winner of Wednesday night's first round game between No. 2 Scituate (18-2) and No. 15 Sandwich (10-10).

Gethin Coolbaugh is a sports correspondent for Holliston Patch. He can be reached at 774-279-1995 or at gethin.coolbaugh@yahoo.com. Follow him @GethinCoolbaugh on Twitter.