Marissa Spinazzola became Mercy field hockey’s all-time winningest coach, Yarianne Gonzalez eclipsed 2,000 career sets, and men’s and women’s soccer swept their rivals…again. Welcome to The Roundup.
It was a great week to be a Mav. Mercy Athletics cleaned up this week and was nearly flawless in their seven games played combined. The four fall teams merged a towering 6-1 record, including a perfect 4-0 on Saturday.
The Mavericks have hit the ground running to start the month, and have all the momentum to see postseason play. Both soccer squads and volleyball are top three seeds in the conference currently, and field hockey’s two-game win streak might be just the spark they needed to make a late push at the Northeast 10 playoffs. Buckle up.
The month of fhocktober
Where there’s a will, there’s a way. The field hockey team made one thing clear this week: they aren’t going down easy. The Mavs answered their six-game skid with a winning streak of their own, going on the road to defeat New Haven, 5-3, and American International, 2-1. Marissa Spinazzola, who became the program’s winningest coach with 17 wins this week, has this team clicking at just the right time.
Four Mavs scored in the high scoring contest with New Haven. The crew was led by a pair of goals from Rieley Fitzgerald with tallies from Samantha Trickel, Kelly Rosenfeld, and Kate Ringstad as well. Fitzgerald exploded for a season best five points in the game, and can be an important piece to this playoff run if she stays in a groove.
Mercy continued its trip to AIC for a gritty second victory in a row. Rachel Palladino scored two goals including the game winner, but it was the defense that is to be talked about. Victoria Devlin and Flynn Kirk made two key defensive saves in the win. The senior duo brings great experience to their side of the field and have been excellent all season.
The eyes turn to the next set of conference matchups this week, featuring back to back home games with St. Thomas Aquinas on Wednesday and Franklin Pierce on Saturday. Don’t count out this team just yet.
Mercy Soccer still owns Molloy, and how marvelous that is
The highly anticipated Saturday afternoon in Westchester didn’t disappoint. The Mercy soccer programs finally squared off against Molloy in a rematch of last year’s ECC Championship games and gave the fans two nail biting contests. The rivalry between the Mavs and the Lions has only gotten hotter over recent years, and the intensity in the latest series proved just that. Two hard fought games led to two narrow Mercy victories. Both programs defeated Molloy by the same score of 1-0, with Johannes Hanken Tjostheim and Marlene Avalos featuring as the heroes with game winning goals.
In another term, Molloy’s programs played over 180 minutes at Mercy Field this weekend and were held without a single goal.
Well done, defense.
Mercy swept both ECC Defensive Player of the Week awards this week after stellar performances from Kamy Anaya and Julian Holland. It’s the second straight week that the men’s program earned the honor after Eirik Elvestad was named it last Monday, and it is the second DPOW honor for Holland this season. The honor is Anaya’s first of the year.
The lady Mavs managed to come out with two wins, beating Southern Connecticut State earlier in the week, 2-1. Anaya made five saves in the second half, including the victory clinching save on a penalty kick with 98 seconds to play. Talk about clutch. The offense came from Amiah Washington and Ancksu Dixon who both scored, and Skyler Schwenkler who dished out two assists. Schwenkler is now tied for the team best in the category with Kayla Camacho, who both have two assists a piece.
The men’s soccer team dropped an out of conference game to Wilmington this past Wednesday, 1-4. It doesn’t count against Mercy’s unblemished 4-0-2 conference record, but fortunately the rebound win against Molloy did. The Mavs sit in first place in the ECC with only two conference games left on the schedule. The defending champs have a fantastic opportunity to enter the ECC tournament as the No. 1 seed.
Next up for the women’s team is games against Wilmington on Thursday and Lincoln on Sunday. The Mavs will finish the regular season with six straight home games, which can play in their favor coming down to the wire.
As for the men, Holland and company take on Dominican tomorrow afternoon and then welcome conference foe UDC to town for senior day this Saturday.
Volleyball has all the pieces for a special playoff run
It was a light week for the volleyball team, who only had one game scheduled. Mercy took a trip over to St. Thomas Aquinas for the first of a difficult four game road stretch, and grabbed a 3-1 victory. The Mavs won the first set with ease, 25-15, before losing their next by a close score of 23-25. It looked like the match had the potential to reach five sets, but Yarianne Gonzalez and company clearly had night plans, winning the next two sets in convincing fashion, 25-15 and 25-21.
As expected, Mercy’s stars came to play on Saturday. Julia Pomerleau had a consecutive monster game with 16 kills on the day and Larissa Schneid had her second double double in a row (11 kills, 12 digs). Yarianne Gonzalez had an incredible 47 assists, surpassing the 2,000 mark for her career. Ana Todorovic is very fortunate for her providential senior class. This trio is really what makes this team go.
The Mavs will now have three consecutive away games on their plate within the next six days, facing off against Bentley, Daeman, and D’Youville. The non conference battle with Bentley will take place tomorrow afternoon before the team gears up for back to back matches this weekend. Mercy owns a solid 9-3 record on the season and has the chance to win over 13 regular season games for the first time since 2019.
