The William Floyd Lady Colonials of Suffolk Class A land at No. 17 in our preseason rankings. They enter the upcoming season striving to pick up where they left off in 2022 which saw them win a total of 14 games with only four defeats and earn a spot in the postseason. Their season however came to an end against Ward Melville in the county semifinals. This season they have a new leader at the helm with Nicole Alesi entering her first season replacing head coach Paul Vassallo. The conference has a plethora of teams that see themselves as contenders to represent Suffolk County in the LIC, and with the returning players on William Floyd’s roster, they are likely to be right in the thick of things.
When discussing William Floyd the first player that comes to mind is top flight midfielder Kayla Gilmore. The Maryland commit enters her junior season and will be the overwhelming focal point of their offense. Last year she had a sophomore season for the ages, leading the team with 82 points, accounting for 65 goals and 17 assists. Gilmore is also elite on the circle and makes a strong case as the best at controlling the draw on the entire island. She had over 140 draw controls last season which allowed them to control the time of possession. With her on the field William Floyd will win their fair share of games and will likely never be completely out of games.
Joining Gilmore at midfield is senior Payton Lavallee and junior Kayden Meyer who combined to contribute 33 points. While their starting midfield is contrived of upperclassmen, their attack unit features two young guns that return after having major roles as eighth graders. Emma DiMaio and Ava Tiedemann gained valuable varsity experience and provided much needed goal scoring to create some balance to the attack unit. DiMaio was good for 28 goals and 15 assists and Tiedemann scored 19 times and handed out 10 assists. Two of their 2022 graduates that were part of last year’s attack were Cynthia Barnosky and Tara DiMaio, who each had a big role in last year’s success.
As for the defensive end, senior Emily Murtha and junior Jacky Sutherland will be the backbone of a defense that was one of the strongest on the island when it comes to goals allowed. They only gave up 4.8 goals per game and 87 total goals on the season. Even in their four defeats they held teams well below their season average. However this year it will look a little different without Amanda Jones in the net who was one of their 2022 graduates. This will likely mean that senior Makayla Inguanta will slide into the starting spot after seeing brief action last season.
On tap for this season are games that are likely to be very competitive against other top tier teams both in and out of conference. To get things started they open up with a non-league matchup against Class C contender Sayville on March 22nd. Noteworthy matchups against teams in their conference include Bay Shore (4/1), Commack (4/3), Northport (4/11), and Ward Melville (4/18). These are sure to be pivotal games to see where they stack up against fellow Class A teams expecting to make a lot of noise.
