Hillbilly Girls Lax Hopes to Rebound

The Verona High School Hillbilly girls lacrosse team is looking to put last season behind them, and take a big step forward this spring. With scoring machine Julieanne Mascera back for her senior campaign, and the Hillbillies returning more than half of its starters, they're off to a nice beginning.

"I'm really excited for this season, we have just a great bunch of girls who are working really hard. We finished our scrimmages 2-1 this year, which was really nice to see," said sixth-year Verona head coach, Suzanne Giarrusso. "We've improved a lot, our full-field transitions looked better.  ...So we're really excited and looking forward to this season."

Verona finished 4-14 last year and was eliminated in the opening rounds of both the county and state sectional championships. However, Mascera scored a whopping 96 goals last spring and added 14 assists to lead the team. She's back for another season of giving defenses nightmares.

"She's an excellent player, her stick work is tremendous. She sees the field, she sees the whole thing, she sees the big picture and she's a smart player. She just knows what to do and I'm looking forward to seeing what she can accomplish this season," Giarrusso said of the Fairfield University bound senior. "She's a true good leader. The girls really look up to her and she's positive. She's a positive role model."

Other offensive weapons for the Hillbillies include attackers Shannon Curran, Maggie Dockerty and Elizabeth Scandiffio as well as midfielder, Casie Milmoe. Freshman, Jackie Brozyna also figures to make an immediate impact, according to Giarrusso.

Defensively the girls have seniors Caroline Mols and Molly Cummings, as well as sophomore Lauren Ednie and junior Haley Tole. They will be backed by senior keeper and three-year starter, Melanie McClellan.

"She is really, really stepping it up this year," Giarrusso said of McClellan. "This is her third season in goal and she is really stepping up her game, being more vocal and I'm really looking forward to seeing what she can do this year."

Verona's chief goal this season is to improve on last spring's marks across the board, meaning a better record and advancing passed the first round of both the state and county tournaments

"I'd like to do better than we did last year on us," Giarrusso said. "We had some key injuries that hurt us and so I'd like to do a little better."

The Hillbillies don't exactly have a light schedule to open the season either, especially considering they open up on the road against the defending county champs, West Essex.

However, the six-game stretch following Verona's season-opener, facing the Lady Knights, are against teams which combined to go 55-57 a year ago. With graduations and unpredictable player improvement, it's hard to read too much into last season's numbers, but those six games will be an early indicator of Verona's overall success this spring.

"The biggest thing is that we play intense," Giarrusso said. "I don't care about the mistakes, there's always going to be mistakes. But it's how do you recover from a mistake. Going all out for 50 minutes, that's what I expect."

There won't be a lack of in-team competition this spring with a record 46 players out for the team this season. Giarrusso joked they sometimes can't even get all of this kids into the practices, they were so packed.

"It's really exciting to see. The sport of lacrosse is really growing and it's really exciting," Giarrusso said. "You can definitely do more drills. Sometimes it's hard cause you can't get everyone in all of the time. But it is very exciting to see where lacrosse is going in Verona."