Mepham Girls Soccer Looking for Another Strong Season in 2011

The Mepham girls’ soccer team is coming off of a successful season in 2010, but an upset in the Class AA quarterfinals to Oceanside put a damper on an undefeated regular season at 14-0.

This season, the Pirates are gearing up for more of the same success, but with hopes of a different result come playoff time in November. Despite being Conference champions last year, Mepham will have their sights set on a bigger prize: the Nassau County championship.

“My expectations are to start with a foundation. I think we are going to hold our own. It will be challenging for us, but I think it will be a really great learning experience,” said first-year head coach Sam Forongy, who was an assistant under recently retired and longtime coach Jim McManus. “This year we will be playing with some of the best teams, so it is going to be a huge difference.” 

Mepham will look to replace a trio of all-state players from last season, including Safi and Sali Ayinde, as well as Jill Picinich. Picinich was the League Most Valuable Player in Conference III.  

A number of key players return from last season, including starting junior midfielder Ashley Appel. Junior Kelsey Simpson and sophomore Nadine Simpson are returning All-Conference players from 2010 that look to make a big difference as well. Sophomore Emily Schmitt is a promising young player for Mepham who was All-Class AA last season.

“We have been practicing for a long time and are really fit for this season,” said Appel. “We just need to work on our defense since this conference will be much better than last year.”

Christina Olson will be another incremental part to the team as the starting goalkeeper for this upcoming season. Alyssa Paolillo will also look to provide senior leadership at the midfield for Mepham.

“We are going to step it up a little bit with playing the harder competition. We are ready as long as we step up on defense and communicate more,” said Paolillo. “We have been preparing with competing in the summer league this year where we did really well.”

As the league have made the switch back to ability-based groupings from enrollment-based last year, Mepham should figure to have some challenges during the season. Top competition includes Baldwin, Farmingdale, Massapequa, MacArthur and Oceanside.

Mepham will open up their season on the road on Monday, September 12, against Hicksville at 4:30 p.m. The girls’ home opener this season will be scheduled for Wednesday, September 14 against Baldwin at 4:30 p.m.