20th Ranked Smithtown West Lady Bulls Team Preview

As we kick off the LILJ Top 20 Preseason Rankings for high school girls lacrosse, we get started with No. 20 ranked Smithtown West from Suffolk Class B. The Lady Bulls are a young, up-and-coming team that is under new leadership with Head Coach Vincenza Patrone entering her first season with the team. “This will be my first year with the team and I am excited to start fresh”, Coach Patrone said to the LILJ, “We have a young team that is ambitious and filled with tenacity. It is an awesome environment to be a part of and hopefully we can create a culture that cultivates a winning environment.”

This season Smithtown West aims to take that next step after going 10-7 overall and extending their run to 12 consecutive years of appearing in the playoffs before losing to ESM in the quarterfinals. Out of their seven loses four of them were decided by just one goal. The team is filled with a tremendously talented group of freshmen and sophomores that have continued to elevate their game and make this team a true Class B contender. One of those key underclassmen that will be a go-to player this season is the dynamic midfielder Jolie Schiavo. Last year as just a freshman Schiavo recorded 28 goals and 11 assists and had a team high 16 points for Smithtown West in the LILJ HSWL. Joining Schiavo as part of this returning group of offensive players is fellow 2025 graduate Kate Theofield and 2026 graduate Ashely Mennella. Both had impressive 2022 seasons, each finding the back of the net 17 times along with nine assists for Theofield and three for Mennella. The team also has a core group of upperclassmen returning with Bella Dantuono playing attack and Laura Luikart and Madison Driscoll at midfield adding to this talented roster.

Defensively two of their top returning defenders are sophomore Grace Theofield and junior Ava Capasso who will be playing in front of freshman Maribella Marciano who is in her second year as the starting goalie. Last year as an eighth grader Marciano notched 70 saves and is arguably the top goalie in the 2026 class on the island, providing great athleticism to make saves at tough angles both on high shots and low shots. Statistically they only allowed seven goals per game.

The one glaring difference about this year’s team is that they will be without 2022 graduate Nikki Mennella who was their All-County, All-Long Island midfielder who is now playing collegiately at Hofstra University. Mennella accounted for a whopping 92 points, scoring 65 goals and 27 assists. Replacing a talent like that certainly doesn’t come easy, but Smithtown West is a program that is building depth and will surely be getting contributions from some of their young guns that will be playing their first season on the varsity team.

Among their young guns on the team this year and are sure to see playing time are the Renkowski sisters Ashlynn (Midfield) and Kaleigh (Defense), and Alyssa Lorefice (Attack). All three enter their freshman season and are some of the top players on Long Island in the ’26 class at their respective positions. They have each shown this winter that they have tremendous promise going into the spring.

The Bulls will get things started with a scrimmage against crosstown rival Smithtown East on March 22nd before they officially open the season with a non-league matchup against Class A Middle Country on March 23rd. Some of the notable conference opponents on their schedule include Comsewogue (4/15) and ESM (4/24) who are teams that they will be jockeying for playoff seeding with in Class B.

 

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