2011 Spring Preview: Sayville Girls Lacrosse

Girls lacrosse head coach Gary Jensen is extremely optimistic about the group he returns in 2011, after falling in the county semifinals to Rocky Point a year ago.

Now, two years removed from a county championship, the Golden Flashes have reloaded with young talent and are looking to make another run at the title, despite having only a few holdovers from that 2009 team.

This team's deep enough to rely on scoring from a number of different sources, but the bulk of the offense will be carried by junior attackmen Emily Meier and Kimberly Marra.

Coach Jensen has only four seniors on this year's team, but a prospective group of juniors and underclassmen will have Sayville on every opponent's radar for the forseeable future.

One of those seniors, Kelly Santangelo, will be counted on to provide steady defensive play. She'll get help from outstanding junior defender Olivia Cabral.

"We have a great defense coming back," said Jensen. "Olivia Cabral, who’s a defender, has started since she was a freshman.

They'll be counted on, along with a goaltending tandem of Gianna Minogue and Leah Leddy, if Sayville is to return to county championship glory.

Record last year: 11-7, 9-5 in League II

Head coach: Gary Jensen, who started the program as a club team in 1999, will be entering his 12th season as head coach.

Top players:

• Olivia Cabral, junior, defense
• Kimberly Marra, junior, attack
• Emily Meier, junior, attack
• Taylor Mills, sophomore, attack
• Connie Nielsen, junior, attack
• Kelly Santangelo, senior, defense

Key losses: Coach Jensen wasn't worried about losing a few seniors to graduation from last year's team. In fact, looking ahead to next year, he was even more excited about the fact that a number of his key players will be returning again in 2012.

"The team is outstanding this year, and we’re only going to get better," he said. "We really have two years with this group."

Expectations:"We're much, much better than we were last year," said Jensen. "This year's team is a whole new crop of kids [from 2009 championship team] outside of five players. "

As for where he expects his team to finish, Jensen didn't shy from the fact that he thinks his team can compete with the best in Suffolk County.

"I forsee them going far," he said. "I’d be disappointed if we didn’t make the county finals."

Big games: The Golden Flashes have a big non-league game coming up against Bayport on March 30.

"We’re excited to play Bayport, even though they’re not in our league," said Jensen. "That’ll be a good test for us."

The team's schedule gets especially tougher a few weeks later, when they see three of the top teams in Division II in the span of five days. First, they'll hit the road to face Rocky Point, who defeated them in the semifinals a year ago, on April 13. They'll continue their road swing three days later against perennial powerhouse Shoreham-Wading River on April 16, before coming home to square off with Hauppauge on April 18.

Coach Jensen is looking forward to that critical week of games.

"I could rattle off five or six teams, but what it’s going to come down to is a Saturday game on April 16 against Shoreham-Wading River and April 18 against Hauppauge," he said. "It’s going to be a tough stretch for us. Both of those teams beat us [last season] too. That will define our season, that chunk of space."