Glen Ridge HS girls basketball team features strong returning group, seeks another stellar season

GLEN RIDGE, NJ — The Glen Ridge High School girls basketball team is poised to have another great season this winter.

The Ridgers, under head coach Mike DelloRusso, return all but one graduated player from last year’s team that finished with a 24-5 overall record and was runner-up in the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association’s North Jersey, Section 2, Group 1 state tournament.

The returning starters are senior small forward Maeve O’Sullivan, junior center Riley O’Sullivan, junior point guard Katie Powers and sophomore power forward Allison Snyder. 

Riley O’Sullivan made the first team, Powers and Snyder made the second team and Maeve O’Sullivan made honorable mention in the all–Super Essex Conference–Colonial Division last season, as voted by the divisional coaches.

Junior small guard-point guard Marjorie Boyle is another returning player who will be a starter.

Coming off the bench will be senior small guard Olivia Gist, senior small guard-point guard Mary Doud and Juliette Lipari  sophomore point guard Anabel Mira-McKenzie, sophomore power forward Alexa Magalnick and sophomore small guard Leila Arda.

The Ridgers also have two promising freshmen: center Caitlin Hood and point guard Lauren Cifelli. 

The rest of the team includes power forward Camille Brown, point guard Brielle Munoz and small guard Maggie De La Fuente, who are juniors. 

Unfortunately, Glen Ridge has two injured players: senior power forward Savannah Steele and sophomore power forward Anabel Koss-Defrank. Steele, who made the first team all-conference last year, will hopefully be back with the team at some point this season, while Koss-Defrank, a second team all-conference selection, is out for the season.

DelloRusso expects another strong run from his team this season.

“We have high expectations of competing for our conference and the section, like we did last year,” DelloRusso said. “I think our strength will be that any one of our players can score or hurt teams at any time. I think we should have great balance this season.”

Glen Ridge will host Bloomfield High School in the season opener on Thursday, Dec. 14.

Here is the rest of the schedule:

• Dec. 14: vs. Bloomfield, 7 p.m.
• Dec. 15: vs. Cedar Grove, 4 p.m.
• Dec. 19: at Nutley, 4 p.m.
• Dec. 21: at Central, 7 p.m.
• Dec. 27: Kearny Holiday tournament
• Jan. 4: vs. West Essex, 4 p.m.
• Jan. 6: vs. Newark Tech, 11:30 a.m.
• Jan. 9: vs. East Orange Campus, 4 p.m.
• Jan. 13: vs. Lansdale Catholic, at Salvation Kroc Center, in Camden, 3 p.m.
• Jan. 15: at Bloomfield, noon
• Jan. 18: at Cedar Grove, 4 p.m.
• Jan. 23: vs. Nutley, 4 p.m.
• Jan. 26: vs. Montclair, 4 p.m.
• Jan. 30: vs. Central, 4 p.m.
• Feb. 1: at West Essex, 7 p.m.
• Feb. 6: at East Orange Campus, 4 p.m.
• Feb. 9: at Caldwell, 7 p.m.
• Feb. 15: vs. Saddle River Day, 4:30 p.m.

Photo Courtesy of Doug Snyder

  Glen Ridge High School girls basketball