Sports
Lynbrook Girls Soccer Preparing for New Season
The Lady Owls have gotten their 2011 season underway in a new conference.
The Lynbrook Girls Soccer team will be bringing back much of their squad from 2010 this fall season.
After a fifth-place finish in their conference last year, the Lady Owls are looking to make a mark in the newly realigned Conference A-III.
The team missed out on the playoffs just a season ago, but Lynbrook will be relying on a mix of veteran leadership along with young underclassmen behind fifth-year head coach Jen Dankenbrink to change that this season.
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“My expectations for the season are to definitely win a lot more games than we did last year and play a lot more offensively,” Dankenbrink said. “I think a lot of these girls can step up and take the leadership role this year."
Lynbrook graduated five seniors, including midfielder Mariel Messilaty and stopper Julie Wigan. One of girls expected to step up and take over is senior sweeper Carrie Feltkamp. She will receive help from fellow seniors Sammy Greenberg at center midfield Maggie Moran at outside midfield.
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“We are going to pick it up a lot and learn better positioning this season,” Feltkamp said. “We all are working really well together. We haven’t played Jericho in over 10 years and playing Hewlett is always a big rivalry.”
Leading the defense will be junior stopper Katie Loonie. Senior Megan LoIacono and junior Chani Sebasczo will also help in bolstering the defensive efforts for Lynbrook this year.
“Compared to last year, we have a much better mesh of the team this year,” Loonie said. “Our defense is really strong and capable of sending it up the field, but we have a lot on our plate because we play a lot of good teams this year.”
Due to the new conference Lynbrook will be facing off against some teams they haven't seen in over 10 years. Top competition will be seen in Roslyn and Jericho, along with the remainder of the squads, including both Valley Stream North and South, Mineola and Hewlett.
Lynbrook kicked off their season this past Tuesday on the road against aforementioned Jericho. Dealing with a shorthanded team in the opener, the goals didn’t fall on the Owls’ side, dropping the game by a 5-0 score.
The Owls will play in their home opener on Saturday, Sept. 17 at 10:30 a.m. against Valley Stream North (0-0-1).
