Garden City girls lacrosse's Victoria Ottomanelli steps up after Kyle Finnell is lost for the season
Garden City's Victoria Ottomanelli gives her team a thumbs up after the Trojans scored their ninth goal of the game at Cold Spring Harbor High School on Monday. Credit: Jonathan Singh
Even without one of their most impactful players on the field Monday morning, the Garden City girls lacrosse team delivered a dominant performance.
Kyle Finnell, the 2024 Newsday Nassau Player of the Year who usually takes her place behind the opposing team's goalie, will now have a spot on the sideline for the rest of the season after tearing her ACL on Saturday. Despite the void left without the senior attack, Garden City secured a 9-4 win over host Cold Spring Harbor in Nassau Conference I.
“Unfortunately, she’s standing with us for the rest of the year,” coach Dave Ettinger said. “It’s been very difficult losing Kyle on Saturday, not practicing yesterday and then trying to come out here and play a really, really good team without her. But I thought the girls did a really nice job of stepping up.”
One of those players who stepped up was senior midfielder Victoria Ottomanelli (two goals).
“Tori has been a huge part of our success on the circle,” Ettinger said. “She’s a great shooter and she’s been on a nice little run of scoring some goals for us."
Ottomanelli said that losing Finnell — Garden City's leading scorer with 17 goals — is going to be a huge adjustment for the team but she still believes the Trojans will be able to succeed.
“It’s definitely going to take a little bit of time and practice to get used to this,” Ottomanelli said. “But this team has so much talent and so much depth, and I think we can find a way to fill that void.”
Ashley Clark scored three goals, Deanna Prisco had two goals and one assist and Kate Connolly made seven saves for the Trojans. Maya Soskin made nine saves for Cold Spring Harbor (5-1), including her 600th career save, a state record, according to coach Danielle Castellane.
The Trojans have now held their opponents to six goals or less in five of their first seven games this season.
“We have a lot of trust in one another,” Garden City senior defender Ellie Andersen said. “We all work really well together and we’re a very gritty team.”
Garden City (5-2) opened its season with a 9-8 loss to Bayport-Blue Point, the 2024 Suffolk Class C runner-up, and fell on Saturday to Darien (Conn.), 11-10.
“We lost two one-goal games to two of the better teams in the country,” Ettinger said. “We’re trying to challenge ourselves with our schedule to prepare us for the end of the season.”
“As the season goes on, we’re going to continue to fix our mistakes,” Ottomanelli said. “This team is a ton of fun, and I’m excited to see what we’ll be able to accomplish together.”