LYNN — A promising season ended too soon for the St. Mary’s girls hockey team last winter.
The Spartans closed the regular season at 16-2-2, good for the No. 6 seed in the Division 1 North state tournament. St. Mary’s cruised past No. 27 Mansfield for a 9-1 rout in the opening round. Then the Spartans picked the wrong day to play a bad game, falling to No. 11 Peabody, 4-0, in the first round.
“We had a great bunch of kids,” Spartans coach Frank Pagliuca said. “During the regular season we had a tremendous year. We were all disappointed that we got bumped out of the tournament early. We didn’t do what we needed to do to win. We had a great opportunity that we squandered. Hopefully the group coming back will use that loss as a learning experience.”
St. Mary’s graduated a talented core of seniors that led by example, including Codi Butt, Madi Hentosh and Lauren Vaccaro.
“They were the real core of our team last year,” Pagliuca said. “From a leadership standpoint we have a big hole to fill but we have some great leaders coming back.”
Senior defenders Kelsey Sullivan and Megan Parthum will co-captain this year’s team.
“They’re great on and off the ice,” Pagliuca said. “They really bring vocal leadership to the team. They’ve been great during the preseason in stressing some of the things we have to focus on in the early part of the season.”
Pagliuca has yet to name a starting goalie. Currently in the mix for the position are sophomore Rhyan Pitari, freshman Ang Catino and eighth-grader Gianna Tringale.
“They’ve all played well,” Pagliuca said. “It’s going to make coaching decisions harder as we move closer to the season. But we like what we’ve seen so far.”
At forward, seniors Zoe Solomons and Kate Gray lead the way.
“This year I think our forwards our really the strength of our team to start the season,” Pagliuca said.
Others projected to play key roles include senior Lexe Turner; juniors Sam Porazinski, Marina DiBiasio, Felicia D’Alessandro and Makayla McGrath; sophomore Jill Kirby; freshmen Maggie Pierce, Kelly Lovette, Lily Pregent and Haylie Grossman; eight-grader Aria Kader.
“We’re not going to rely on one line or one and a half lines,” Pagliuca said. “We can roll out three lines and there’s no drop in talent. I think we can use our skill in attacking teams this year. So far I like the way we’re working. It’s been positive to see us how we’ve progressed. We scrimmaged (last) Saturday and we looked better in terms of communication.”
Per usual, the Spartans will test themselves during the regular season with a competitive schedule. The Catholic Central League continues its upward trend in girls hockey and St. Mary’s will play non-conference games against Notre Dame of Hingham, Arlington, Boston Latin, Westford Academy, Fenwick (for the first time in program history), Peabody/Lynnfield and Lexington.
“I think (the CCL) is going to be very competitive,” Pagliuca said. “Austin Prep’s only loss was in the state championship. Matignon will be very strong too. Archbishop Williams will be competitive and ready to play. Arlington Catholic has a new coach. St. Joe’s comes into the league. I believe Fenwick will come into the league next year. Our league’s gaining depth in terms of teams, which is a good thing to see.
“We have a very strong non-league schedule, which is good,” Pagliuca said. “We want to play good non-league competition consistently.”
St. Mary’s opens the season Saturday (8) at Austin Prep.
