Sleepy Hollow’s Angevine Takes Home the Gold

For all the girls who played on Hudson Valley's field hockey squad that won the gold medal in the Empire State Games for the fifth straight time, there was a genuine sense of accomplishment.

One of those girls taking part in the victory is Sleepy Hollow senior Jennifer Angevine. She scored Hudson Valley's first goal in its 3-0 triumph against Long Island in the gold medal game Sunday in Buffalo – a contest that saw Hudson Valley out shoot Long Island 14-5.

"It feels so great to win the gold medal because of all the hard work we put into it," Angevine said. "We dedicated the entire month of July to just work on our skills and better ourselves so we could compete for the gold medal that we came away with."

Angevine helped make sure that Hudson Valley came away with the gold medal when she gave it a 1-0 lead at the 13:17 mark of the first half.

"It was a nice pass from the backfield up to Shannon Scavelli to Emma Bozek," Angevine said. "Emma hit a rocket into the goal, it hit off my stick and then it went on to the crossbar, the top of the goal and then it came back down and I swatted it into the goal."

As one could imagine, Angevine got very excited after she scored the goal.

"The first thing I did was jump up and down, I was so excited," Angevine said. "It was actually awhile before we had scored. It was probably the longest we had gone through a game without scoring. It was really nice to put that in."

Bozek, who was recently named to the under-17 junior national team, and Scavelli were two of the six players from defending Class B state champion Lakeland that Angevine got to play with. The others were Amanda DiDomzio, Leanne Goldblatt, Chelsea Remling and Nikki Schultz.

Angevine also played for Lakeland's coach, who is also the coach for Hudson Valley, Sharon Sarsen. Sarsen was very impressed with the way Angevine played and was very grateful to have her on the team. Sarsen said Angevine is a natural scorer who really learned to develop the rest of her game while practicing and playing for Hudson Valley.

"First of all I think Jennifer is a really coachable kid," Sarsen said. "She was a pleasure to coach. She definitely learned a lot and she was like a sponge, as much as she could learn, she wanted to learn. Obviously, when you play at a high level with a lot of talent, you can really challenge these kids. I think she was exposed to things she had never been exposed to and she really was very receptive and she picked up everything very quickly."

Because Angevine was able to pick up things so quickly, she was able to earn her gold medal along with the rest of her Hudson Valley teammates.

"It was cool to win that gold medal, honestly there is no better feeling," Angevine said. "It was an out of body experience."

Angevine is looking forward to playing in the high school season this fall for Sleepy Hollow and bringing with her the vast field-hockey experience she gained this summer.

"I learned to never underestimate yourself," Angevine said. "I never thought that I was going to make the team and I did. I wound up helping them out with a goal and it was just really nice. Just don't give up. I tried and I kept going and it was a great feeling that I stuck with it."