Sonoma basketball girls face challenging new league

Lady Dragon ?hoopsters have ?five returnees|

Lady Dragon basketball Coach Jann Thorpe is looking forward to the new Vine Valley Athletic League schedule this winter.

The new league is going to be more of a challenge than the Sonoma County League where the Lady Dragons played for years.

“It’s going to be more competitive than the SCL,” said Thorpe. “Every night, we’re going to have a competitive game.”

The last few years, the SCL has been Sonoma, Petaluma and Analy leaving the rest of the league in the dust. Healdsburg, El Molino, Piner and Elsie Allen weren’t competitive.

But this will be a different year. In the VVAL, Napa and Vintage are in Division 1; Casa, Petaluma and American Canyon are Division 2 and Justin-Siena is Division 4, leaving Sonoma as the lone Division 3 school in the league.

Thorpe have five returnees on this year’s 11-girl roster.

The returnees include seniors Annie Neles and Erin Gylfe; juniors Kennedy Midgley and Kaliyah Hensic and sophomore Sophie Lucchetti. They’ll be joined by seniors Kaitlyn Dunevent and Marcela Reyes; junior Shauna Johnston; and sophomores Jovana Saldana, Sophia Riebli and Chelsey Crespo.

“I’m going to be leaning on my returnees as leaders,” Thorpe said. “I also have some sophomores that I’ll have for the next three years.”

Veterans Neles and Midgley will be captains this year.

“Annie was our defensive player of the year last year,” said Thorpe. “She brings defensive pressure – and I want her to up her responsibilities. I also want her to go to the basket.”

Midgley is very competitive and Thorpe likes her work ethic. “Kennedy’s going to be in the post where she’s very tough,” the coach added.

Hensic is the speed merchant. “She covers a lot of area and causes a lot of havoc with her speed,” Thorpe said.

Thorpe wants Gylfe to open things up with her outside shooting. “Erin’s got a good outside shot,” she added.

Lucchetti got a lot of playing time last year as a freshman. “Sophie came a long way last year,” Thorpe said. “This year, she came in with more confidence and understands what we need. We need her to shoot.”

Johnston, who saw some playing time as a freshman two years ago, played soccer last winter and decided she wanted to play basketball this winter, so she has some game experience.

Saldana, Crespo and Riebli will see plenty of playing time this year. Saldana will be learning how to be a point guard, Crespo will play the post and Thorpe is looking for some rebounds from her, and Riebli will also be on the post. “Sophia’s very athletic and brings a lot of energy,” Thorpe said.

And the coach is looking for some senior leadership and maturity from Dunevent and Reyes.

Despite the mixture of experience and youth, the Lady Dragons are missing two important ingredients.

“We don’t have any size and we don’t have a lot of speed,” Thorpe admits.

“But we can play defense and we want to bring toughness,” she said. “We have to rely on trusting each other and we have to get rebounds.”

The Lady Dragons need to execute and be patient on offense.

“We don’t want to be rushing on offense,” Thorpe added.

The Lady Dragons have seen some early action as they participated in the eight-team Justin-Siena Scramble on Nov. 10. They ended up playing four teams – Vintage, Napa, American Canyon and Cardinal Newman.

This early in the season, the Lady Dragons are aiming to get better with each practice. “We’re trying not to do everything at once,” Thorpe said. “We work on being good at the little things.”

After getting a look at Napa, Vintage and American Canyon in the Justin Scramble, Thorpe knows the season’s going to be tough.

“Vintage has height – and Napa’s real aggressive,” she said.

After tonight’s Foundation Game against Montgomery, at 7 p.m., the Lady Dragons have their Alumni Game Wednesday at 5 p.m. and are off the rest of the Thanksgiving break. They host former foe, El Molino, on Tuesday, Nov. 27 and then host their annual eight-team Dragon Classic Tournament Nov. 29 to Dec. 1.

Sonoma open its conference schedule on Dec. 18 against Napa. Once the conference schedule starts, the Lady Dragons will have games as often as three times a week – on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The conference tournament is scheduled for Feb. 6 and 8.

“Once we get back after Christmas, it’s going to go fast,” she said. “We’re looking forward to the challenge of being the first VVAL champion.”

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