Troy Athens High School

The Lady Redhawks avenged their one league loss in a rocky, foul-filled, tough-it-out defensive battle versus visiting Southfield A and T. Southfield edged out the first two quarters with scores of 6 to 5 and 3 to 2. Athens then followed the program-wide policy of having a big third quarter, winning it 8 – 0. Carmen Cavataio provided all the offense from there, scoring the team’s final eight points of the fourth quarter and the girls pulled away with a 23 – 14 victory. “Carmen’s always a great team player,” said teammate Arianna Saracevic. “This game she put up the big numbers.” “She knows when to turn it on,” agreed Emily Cousino. Carmen explained the difference between the first and the second half. “We started out down and had a lot of fouls. At the half time break, we just got our focus back, calmed down, and stayed together.” Emily added that the difference in the second half was “better passes, better help on defense, way less fouls.” Gia Leong, one of several of the players on the team who also plays volleyball noted the need for good talk. “In volleyball, you really have to communicate to cover the floor, and everybody has their role. It’s even more important in volleyball than basketball because, obviously, you can’t even let the ball touch the floor without losing a point, but you can see the carry over between the two sports.” Carmen led all scorers with 12 points, Sophia Alexander had 5, and Emily, Sarah Kesto, and Arianna had 2 each. The game was part of a sweep with the JV A and Varsity teams also winning exciting games. Many of the JV B players stayed to watch the Varsity celebrate Senior Night and expressed their admiration for the upper classmen. “Everyone on the Varsity team is an amazing player, and they kind of show us how it’s done,” complimented Arianna. Gia agreed, “There’s a lot of camaraderie between the grades, and the Varsity players are good role models. They had to work really hard to get where they are.”