Monday, May 19, 2025
Calhoun is in a four-team race for the Conference II girls’ lacrosse championship entering the final two weeks of the regular season.
Last year’s county semifinalists are 7-1 against conference foes this spring and 9-2 overall. Unfortunately, their lone divisional loss came against first-place Plainedge (9-1 Conference II) on April 15, but the girls rebounded to win their next three games by a combined score of 45-13 to remain in the hunt.
Locust Valley (6-2 in II), whom Calhoun visited on Monday, and Lynbrook (6-1) are also vying for the title. The Colts hold the tiebreaker against the latter after posting an 11-9 victory over the Owls on April 9 behind five goals and two assists by star senior Alexandra Aievoli.
Calhoun visits Oceanside on Friday before finishing the season at home against Mepham on May 7.
“I think depending on who shows up on what days, any one of these games in Conference II can be tough,” said Calhoun coach James Raucci, who returned to the helm following an eight-year hiatus. “We have to win one game at a time and try to secure the highest seed, which would be the No. 4 spot in the B’s, and go from there.”
Aievoli leads the team with 37 goals and 54 points. She has nine goals and six assists during the current winning streak, including four tallies in each of the last two contests against Roslyn and Bethpage.
“Alex is such a strong athlete, but she also watches a lot of film on her own and is a student of the game behind the scenes,” Raucci said. “I didn’t even realize how much she’ll sit and watch tape and self-analyze, so she’s a complete package.”
Senior Samantha Kalinoglu had a season-high six goals and an assist in last Friday’s 14-6 win over Bethpage and has posted 27 goals and 34 points this season. She also found the net four times in Calhoun’s 17-3 romp of Baldwin on April 17.
“She’s just really smart with the ball on her stick,” Raucci said. “She has the ability to dodge from the left side, has the ability to feed and cut off the ball, and the thing I get so impressed with Samantha is her work in-between the restraining lines. It’s a coach’s dream when you have a kid do all the off-the-ball stuff that doesn’t make the paper.”
The Colts have also gotten plenty of scoring depth from several underclassmen such as freshman Tess McGuire (21-11-32), sophomores Tessa Gerrard (13-6-19) and Angelica Kasimatis (10-6-16), junior Eila Cavalieri (6-9-15), and senior Cara Buglione (8-3-11). The offense is averaging just over 12 goals a contest and has scored 135 times overall.
Calhoun also boasts a stingy defense that has allowed just over six goals a game. Seniors Samantha Guida and Kailey Faughnan and juniors Claire Carragher, DeLaney Ann McGrath, and Ryan Karis highlight the corps, and sophomore Alexa Schenfeld has made 70 saves in her first year as a varsity starter.
The eighth-grade midfield trio of Samantha Curcio, Camille Megias, and Sophia Palmeri has also impressed Raucci.
