Field Hockey: Nanuet lost 0-4 to Sleepy Hollow

When the Nanuet Lady Golden Nights traveled to play at the Sleepy Hollow Lady Horsemen Tuesday, Sept. 7, it was a chance for each team to start the season off with a win.

Sleepy Hollow took advantage of it opportunities in the first half, scoring three times on its way to a 4-0 victory against Nanuet. For Sleepy Hollow, the win was a sweet one as last year they didn't notch a win until the team's season finale.

"They have some talented kids on the forward line," Nanuet coach Karen Leitner said. "They beat us on some one and ones, beat the goalie on some one on ones and defensively we sat back a little too far and were a little too tentative. We gave them a lot of space to move the ball."

Leading Sleepy Hollow to the win was senior forward Andrea Alvarez, who registered two goals and an assist.

"Everyone was doubting us because we tied a bunch of games and lost a bunch of games and just won our last game last year," Alvarez said. "We needed to come out with a great game and prove everyone wrong."

Forwards like Alvarez gave the Knights trouble.

Sleepy Hollow started the scoring when Emily Mottola tallied a goal with the assist coming from Jennifer Angevine.

Nanuet though had a couple of great chances to tie the game but Sleepy Hollow goalie Daniella Uribe answered the challenges, making 10 of her 11 saves in the first half. One save she made came on a wild scramble where she went to the ground to cover the ball up with 23:30 remaining in the first half.

Shortly after, Uribe was pressured again but she made a kick save to preserve the hosts' lead.

Sleepy Hollow's offense then took over when Chloe Smercak, with an assist from Alvarez, doubled the lead to 2-0 at the 16:52 mark. Alvarez then scored an unassisted goal when she dribbled it by goalie Katie Bonner to go up 3-0 at the half.

Alvarez scored her second goal of the game, off an assist from Gianna Volpe with 16:48 to go in the contest to give Sleepy Hollow a 4-0 lead.

Nanuet gave its all as well, as it improved its play throughout the game.

"In the second half of the first half, we had a lot more opportunities, we had a lot of corners," Leitner said. "We just weren't getting in our shots at all. We could've changed momentum in the game if we knocked some of those in. We just missed hitting the ball, we didn't get decent shots off."

Sleepy Hollow coach Melissa Alamprese was pleased to see her squad display a balanced offensive attack.

"It was something we definitely worked on," Alamprese said. "We really worked on pushing the ball into the circle and really trying to get the ball in as quickly as possible and getting shots off as quickly as possible to get the goalie off guard. So that is something we have been working on for two weeks so I think the girls did a nice job executing our plan."

 Leitner was happy to see forward Kerry Young and forward/midfielder Antoinette Sapanaro provide ball movement to Nanuet's offense.

"We had some opportunities," Leitner said. "We moved the ball pretty quickly in the offense. What hurts us is we get to the attacking end pretty quickly and have trouble getting back defensively."

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