The Pioneer Trail: Saturday, Feb. 28, 2015
Wrestling at Super Region One Tournament - 11 a.m.The LIU Post wrestling team is in its final day of competition at the NCAA Super Region One Tournament in West Liberty, W.Va. The Pioneers may not get to the NCAA Tournament as a team, but three individual grapplers have the opportunity today to clinch automatic qualification by winning their weight brackets.
133-lb. freshman
Joe Calderone (Huntington Station, N.Y.) is the highest seed remaining in his weight bracket after yesterday's quarterfinals. That makes him the prohibitive favorite to take the regional title going into today's semifinal against Notre Dame (Ohio) wrestler Sam White. A win will place Calderone into the regional championship, a first for the newly-reinstated Pioneer program. Additionally, senior
Chris DiIorio (Holtsville, N.Y.) and freshman
James Louison (Hauppauge, N.Y.) will look to advance to the finals in the 197-lb. and 285-lb. brackets, respectively.
Junior
Jesse Meaney (Toms River, N.J.) and freshman
Ronnie King (Islip, N.Y.) are still alive in the 141-lb. and 184-lb. consolation brackets, as well. The highest that these two members of the green and gold can finish is third by winning out in the wrestlebacks.
Women's Lacrosse vs. Holy Family - 1 p.m.The LIU Post women's lacrosse team will do something that it has not done since the 2008 season when the team opens up their scheduled play today at Bethpage Stadium. The Pioneers will suit up and take the field without a Sileo (Nicole or Jackie) on their roster, as the latter---the highest pointscorer in NCAA women's lacrosse history---is now a graduate assistant coach for the green and gold.
In fact, the Pioneers will go into this season after graduating four of its top five scorers in Sileo, Samantha Losco, Katie Rotan and Morgan Chiarenza. Only sophomore
Stefani Vagelatos (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) returns after a brilliant freshman campaign in which she scored 44 goals and 60 points total. LIU Post will also have the offensive services of senior midfielder
Jenna Pierro (Holbrook, N.Y.), who scored 31 goals in the 2014 campaign. Other pieces return for the green and gold this season in sophomore midfielder and draw control specialist
Connor Bird (Syosset, N.Y.) and junior defensive middie
Honey Roche (Centerport, N.Y.).
Perhaps the most important cogs on the LIU Post roster are the ones that are returning from injury on defense: seniors
Kali Maxwell (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and
Emily Hanifan (Hicksville, N.Y.). But with the graduation of goalkeeper Katie Hannan, the Pioneers will have a huge hole to fill in cage. The green and gold will look to junior
Kasey Kephart (Nesconset, N.Y.) or a combination of freshmen
Courtney Jenkins (Longwood, Fla.) and
Olivia Kirk (Farmingdale, N.Y.) to keep opposing offenses off the board.
Whereas the Pioneers will look to fill voids from the graduates of last year's NCAA Semifinalist team, Holy Family returns a majority of its stars from the 2014 squad that reached its third consecutive CACC title game. Senior midfielder Brianna Lancetta (Marlboro, N.J.) and junior middie Paige Settar (Mullica Hill, N.J.) are back for the Tigers after receiving All-CACC honors last season. The two midfielders combined for 84 goals and 102 total points and will look to make up the production of the now-graduated attacker Brigit LaRose, who led the Tigers with 55 goals and 71 points last season. Settar and Lancetta also totaled 99 draw controls for the Tigers.
Senior defender Kimber Kisselback (Langhorne, Pa.) also returns for Holy Family this season after an all-conference performance in 2014. Kisselback had a team-high 41 ground balls and caused 19 turnovers in her junior season. Junior goalie Grace Deckert (Jarrettsville, Md.) will look to improve on her sophomore campaign in which she posted a .387 save percentage and a 12.10 goals against mark.