Coming off a sub-.500 season in 2023-2024, there’s a new and refreshing vibe this year when it comes to the Lynnfield girls varsity basketball team, despite dropping a season-opener Friday night at Manchester-Essex, 45-40.
Last year’s team struggled to generate offense and was plagued by turnovers. The team was extremely young with seven freshmen and just two seniors on the 12-player roster. Fast forward to this year when the Pioneers return nine players with varsity experience along with four new freshmen, and it’s a whole new ballgame – just ask the three senior captains. Two-year captain and 2024 Cape Ann League Second Team All-Star Taylor Valiton feels this year’s team will be a much better shooting team than in the past and will also bring some much-needed height and speed to the mix.
“I feel like, definitely, we have always been a speedy team and our defense has always been stronger than other parts of our game,” she said. “But with shooting, we’ve had trouble, especially with our outside shooting, but this year, I am hoping will turn that around. We have a lot of good shooters, especially with some of the freshmen, so we’ve been focusing a lot on that in practice, too. We’ve also gained a lot of players who are really fast, which is good, and we have a lot of height as well.”
Valiton’s observations about the Pioneers’ offense may be spot on. In the team’s second and final preseason scrimmage, the Pioneers put 50 points on the board against Saugus on Dec. 10. Last season, the Pioneers topped the 50-point mark just once.
Fellow captain Erika Pasquale said she is optimistic about the way the team’s chemistry is developing and the fact that the bench is shaping up to be deeper than in past years.
“I think we have a lot of depth this year with a lot of incoming freshmen and returning sophomores,” she said. “We only have three seniors and have a lot of new players, but we are really working well together.”
Fellow captain Emma Rose agreed with Pasquale about the fact that this year’s bench is much more robust in terms of numbers.
“Like Erika said, we are all working really well together and now, we have a bigger bench with, I think, 13 kids in all, which is definitely different for us,” Rose said. “We’ve never had that before, meaning we will now have quicker subs and more energy. Honestly, we’ve been working on our defense and our shots, so if we combine those, we may be able to beat the teams that we haven’t beaten in past seasons.”
In addition to Rose, Valiton and Pasquale, sophomore Hayden Valiton also returns as a starter. She had a breakout season as a freshman, earning CAL First Team All-Star honors. Other returning players include sophomores Faith Angelo, Jordan Calichman, Hannah Doherty, Chloe McEwan, and Maeve Wertz. Newcomers include freshmen Oliva Braley, Calleigh Caprio, Vanessa Champy, and Chloe Grieves.
Lynnfield is slated to start the season with four road games before returning home for a non-league contest on Dec. 28 (TBD). The Pioneers’ non-league schedule includes games against Stoneham (Dec. 27), Waltham (Feb. 16) and Swampscott (Feb. 18).
Rose said the cream of the Cape Ann League crop, once again, is Pentucket, North Reading, and Newburyport.
“We almost beat Newburyport last year and lost by only one point, which was a huge difference compared to prior years,” she said. “Like I said, I am hopeful that we can beat some of the teams that we haven’t had success against in past years.”
