LYNN — With an experienced core returning to the ice in 2020, the St. Mary’s girls hockey team is ready to pick up where it left off last season.
The 2019-2020 version of the Spartans went 14-2-4 during the regular season and earned the No. 5 seed in the Division 1 tournament. After two wins to open up the tournament, St. Mary’s ended up falling to eventual state co-champion Woburn in the semifinal round, 2-1.
“I think last year’s team had a really good shot to get all the way to TD Garden (for the state championship),” said St. Mary’s coach Frank Pagliuca. “Unfortunately for us, we ran into a really good team with a great player and we couldn’t quite get past them. That’s how it goes sometimes. Overall we had a very good year and I was impressed with the full commitment of everyone on the team.”
This year, the Spartans have what could be a perfect blend of experienced veterans and talented newcomers on the roster. Team captains Samantha Porazinski, Felicia D’Alessandro, Marina DiBiasio and Makayla McGrath will lead the way on and off the ice, while returning skaters Jenna Chaplain, Maggie Pierce, Kelly Lovett, Lily Pregent, Haylie Grossmann and Aria Kader will also look to make an impact for St. Mary’s. When you add in the nine talented new players set to make the roster, the Spartans have the best of both worlds.
“We have a good core coming back and we’re really excited about it,” said Pagliuca. “We’re going to be able to run four lines, plenty of defensive pairings and we have a lot of great young talent to add in as well, so we’ve got a high volume of very capable players.”
On the goaltending front, there will be a new face between the pipes after last year’s starter Rhyan Pitari transferred to Brewster Academy. Last year’s backup Angelina Catino and newcomer Gianna Tringale will battle it out for the starting spot.
One of the key head starts that the Spartans will have this season is the fact that many of their players have already played fall sports for St. Mary’s this year, and thus are all used to the safety protocols like playing with a mask on and socially distancing.
“Most of our girls are either multi-sport athletes here or they played summer and fall league hockey, so pretty much all of them are used to these new protocols,” said Pagliuca. “We all understand our responsibilities this season and I think we’re well-suited to adapt. The biggest hurdles will be figuring out how to distance on the bench and how to deal with not having locker rooms, but those are off-the-ice issues that we’ll be able to handle.”
St. Mary’s currently has 13 regular-season games scheduled for this year with the hopes that they can bump that up to 15 games. As the Catholic Central League continues to expand and get better around them each year, the Spartans are excited to get back to competition.
“The league is growing and getting better, and that’s a great thing to see for girls hockey in general,” said Pagliuca. “At this point we’re just trying to schedule as many games as we can, just in case games get canceled or something like that.”
Due to the MIAA waiving the out-of-season coaching rule for the 2020-2021 academic year, St. Mary’s was allowed to meet as a team and start working two weeks ago. They’ve since had 11 practices in addition to a scrimmage against Archbishop Williams, and the Spartans feel like the extra practice time will really benefit them in such a condensed season.
“It takes a little bit of time to get everyone up to speed, especially when you have nine new players in the mix,” said Pagliuca. “Having four weeks to be able to work on things should help us out a lot, and I’m really encouraged with what I’ve seen out of the team so far.”
St. Mary’s opens up the 2020-2021 season on Saturday, Dec. 26 (7:30) against Matignon at Stoneham Arena.
