N. Girls Field Hockey vs. Garden City

By Chris Omeltchenko

North seniors: kneeling: Alexis Siviglia, Lauren Leyden, Pauline Nash. Standing: Coach Joan Gruenbaum, Erica Levy, Sara Novikoff, Susan Cooper, Lauren Menkes and Coach Kathy Behar.

The Great Neck North Girls Field Hockey team under coaches Joan Gruenbaum and Cathy Behar played Garden City for the Class B County Championships and lost 3-0. "We needed to play a near perfect game for us to win, and we didn't," stated Coach Gruenbaum. Garden City scored the first goal about 15 minutes into the first half, and led at halftime 1-0. Garden City scored its second goal in the early few minutes of the second half, and scored the final goal with 5 minutes left in the game. "We did not have intensity in the second half," stated Coach Behar. "Garden City has three All State players on their team, and they played great," continued Coach Behar. In the first meeting against Garden City, North lost 2-1 in a closely fought match commented Coach Gruenbaum. "Garden City knew they could be beat, and played well the whole game," continued Coach Gruenbaum.

Coach Gruenbaum believes North reached the County final 12 times since 1980, and played Garden City six times for the championship, but never managed to beat Garden City. "Twice we played Garden City in the County Final with a team equal to theirs. Once was last year's heartbreaker 2-1 loss in overtime, and the other time was 11 years ago when Coach Cathy Behar was a player."

North will lose seven seniors, Susan Cooper, Erica Levy, Lauren Leyden, Lauren Menkes, Pauline Nash, Sara Novikoff and Alexis Siviglia. Nash, Leyden and Siviglia are the captains. North returns a big junior group led by Goalie Rachel Lubert. Other athletes North will depend on are Diana Hochman, Meenah Kim, Randi Levine, Abby Maxwell, Nikki Neal, Christy Raciti, Jessica Sherman and Ida Lalazerian. North had 20 girls on the junior varsity team and will be looking for more help from them to continue their successful tradition. North beat Clarke 3-0 in the opening round of the playoff which North hosted, and the team played hard and with a lot of heart. North ended their conference season with a 8-6 record in tough conference.