St. Mary’s girls basketball aiming high

All the pieces are in place for the St. Mary’s girls basketball to have one of those seasons you remember 20 years down the road.The Spartans enter the 2010-11 campaign off an 18-7 year a season ago that saw them reach the Division 3 North semifinals before losing to Pentucket. St. Mary’s has won 36 games the last two seasons and now looks to be in prime position to finally take that step up with the big boys.Click her for more photos”We definitely have a lot of potential,” St. Mary’s coach Jeff Newhall said. “We have put the time and effort into building a good program here. But we can’t get caught up in the all the rankings and stuff. We have to work hard every day.”St. Mary’s returns three starters from last year, led by the front court duo of Tori Faieta and Cassi Amenta.Faieta, who has already committed to play at Stonehill College, was a double-double machine a year ago. She averaged 15.4 points and had 11.8 rebounds a game. She added 6.2 blocks per game and shot 71% from the field.Her cohort on the blocks, Amenta, wasn’t too shabby either in 2009, finising with a 12.8 points per game average and pulling down 8.1 boards. Throw in junior Ann Marie Idusuyi and Newhall knows he has the makings of a very hard to defend front line.”Those three are going to be a very strong rotation in the post for us at both ends of the floor,” Newhall said. “Tori and Cassi have been together for three years now and they know each other well. They know the system and it lets us get things going quicker.”Pulling the strings for the Spartans will be senior point guard Kirsten Ferrari, a three-year starter. She is joined in the back court by senior Erin Fahey and junior Maggie Carey.Molly Carey would have been another starter for St. Mary’s at guard, but she is out until mid-January with an ACL injury.”Kirsten has worked unbelievably hard in the off-season to get better and she looks tremendous. Erin will have a bigger role for us after coming off the bench and Maggie is up from JV. We have a lot of good guards,” Newhall said.”Rachel Faieta, Melissa Kennedy and Rachel Stueve will come off the bench to give the Spartans some depth, the one thing Newhall knows his team has lacked against the powers of Division 3 in recent years.”Our depth allows us to have a practice to work on stuff and then go 5-on-5 at full speed and be competitive. That’s how you get better,” Newhall said. “We haven’t had that depth in the past. We’ve gotten worn down at times.”Newhall also is looking for contributions from freshmen Brianna Rudolph, Jennie Mucciarone and Sharrell Sanders.The Spartans open their season on December 13th at Conigliaro Gymnasium against Austin Prep. They also will be traveling to Disney World in Orlando in December to participate in the KSA Classic, which features some of the top teams in the country.St. Mary’s also has trips to Division 1 power Central Catholic and Durfee on its schedule, along with the Boverini Tournament and Spartan Classic that ends their season.”We have put together as good a schedule as you can at our level,” Newhall said. “If you want to be one of the best in the state, you have to play the best teams to get there.”