- By Maureen Dracup
- Sports
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Sectional play opened up yesterday at home for the girls with a 5-0 win over Newark Valley. They next travel to 3rd seed Chenango Valley on Saturday for a 3:30pm game. This is a big game as Chenango Valley ended the Lansing girls' season last year with a 2-0 victory.
Defensively Lansing is a strong, cohesive line with seniors co-captain Tiffany Lind and Kaycee Nedrow, sophomore Megan Palladino, and freshmen Lydia Warkentin and Kelsey Redmond. Senior Haley Bacorn made her return from a knee injury that has kept her sidelined since our Ithaca scrimmage before the season began. Freshman Goalkeeper MC Barrett has earned 11 shut-outs in 17 games. This defensive unit has only allowed 7 goals in their net.
Offensively the team is equally as strong with 87 goals. Leading this goal scoring are sophomore Rachael Palladino with 36, freshman Ellyn Grant-Keane with 19 and senior Colleen Trowbridge with 10. Other players that have stepped up and become dangerous in the attacking third are junior Ryann Cretney and senior Preeti Panda.
Not to be outdone, Lansing's midfielders are a big reason why they're more effective this year. They’re a solid group that works very hard. They get the most grief from me because I demand so much from them. Seniors Kelly Cheatham and co-captain Veronica Palladino are the team's playmakers; their central midfielders. They control the game with the help of their attacking midfielders Colleen Trowbridge, Ryann Cretney and Kelsey Redmond, who has just recently started playing midfield and is doing wonderfully.
They are a balanced team. When they're on and everyone is pulling their weight, there’s no saying how far they can take this. For now, the team is taking this journey one game at a time, keeping themselves grounded and knowing that no team is going to give them a win.
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