Spring Sports Preview: Sleepy Hollow Girls Lacrosse

This may be Sleepy Hollow girls lacrosse coach Blair Moynahan's first year of coaching the team, but fortunately the Lady Horsemen coach has a roster that is filled with returning players.

What will also help is that last year's coach, Greg Scerba, is an assistant this year so he has the 411 on all the players.

"This year there is a positive tone with this team," Moynahan said. "My assistant coach (Scerba), who coached them last year, said they really didn't start to come together until the end of last year. They have started this season all on the same page, which is a huge bonus for us to start the season. The stick skills have improved. We will see a lot in the transition game."

Sleepy Hollow's top returning players, who are all starters, include sophomore Annelise Birrittella, who will be playing attack, senior Alexis Bateman, who will be on defense, senior middie Rachel Swenson, junior Andrea Alvarez, who's on attack; junior center-middie Gabrielle Cellante, junior Jennifer Angevine, who plays attack and junior middie Gianna Volpe.

Birrettella is a very aggressive player who has a nose for the goal and her coach expects a lot of points out of her this year. Bateman will be in charge of leading the defense and Swenson will also give Sleepy Hollow a player who is very aggressive.

Alvarez is one of those players that always is able to find the open spot on the field and is very fast. Cellante will bring a lot of leadership to the team, do well in face-offs and help the Lady Horsemen's transition game.

Angevine is someone who is smart and aggressive. She will help Sleepy Hollow with the leadership on the offensive side of the field. Volpe's strength is that she is a very smart player who can play anywhere on the field.

The above players all have experience playing on the varsity level as does the rest of the team, which will also play an important role in how the Lady Horsemen will fare this spring.

Sophomore midfielder Sara Rennert, sophomore goalie Roberta Shortell, junior midfielder Emily Mottola, junior middie/defense Marisa Weissman, senior middie Taylor Greenberg, junior Bernice Rodriguez, who plays defense as does sophomores Alexis Birrettella and Valerie Morales, make up the rest of the Sleepy Hollow squad.

Starting from this group will be Alexis Birrettella, Roberta Shortell, Emily Mottola and Taylor Greenberg. Greenberg will be a co-captain, along with Bateman, Swenson and Cellante.

It is a squad that will be going against a more local schedule this year and that is something Moynahan is in favor of. Sleepy Hollow will actually open up when they travel to nearby Irvington at 4:30 p.m. April 6.

"A lot of the girls know or played against players who play on teams from neighboring schools so I think it's nice to keep the competition going," Moynahan said. "It's also better for the kids sake in terms of travel. A lot of longer trips you take some of the better athletes, they are able to get focused but some of other players on the team it may be harder for them to focus."

As for what Moynahan expects from his squad this year, the coach likes to keep things positive.

"I just told the girls, our goals for them this year are to stay on the positive side and expect more from themselves," Moynahan said. "I want them to believe in themselves. They have had an extremely positive attitude from day one overall with everything."