Garnet Womens Soccer Announces Class of 2014
SWARTHMORE, Pa. - Coming off the best season in program history with 16 wins and their third straight ECAC Championship, women's soccer head coach Todd Anckaitis has a lot to be excited about. On Sunday, he announced arguably the best recruiting class in Swarthmore women’s soccer history with the introduction of eight new players.
“Our numbers are great right now with six seniors, six juniors, seven sophomores, and eight freshman (six playable),” said Anckaitis, “We’ve come a long way from my first year five years ago when we only had 17 players on the roster and five of them were seniors. Not only is this balance going to help the Garnet maintain their consistent high level of play year over year but the quality of each incoming class seems to be getting better as well. We’ve got national caliber strength in this class at each position which bodes well for the future,” said Anckaitis.
The Garnet’s first year class will have plenty of experience to draw from with Swarthmore returning four All-Conference performers, one at each position (F, M, D, GK).
A more detailed look at the class of 2014 is below:
Megan Brock – (Long Beach, CA; Long Beach Polytechnic High School)
Megan Brock is a crafty midfield player with a great work rate and deceptive strength. She has had a great showing in the preseason finishing with the game-winning goal in a 2-0 road victory over nationally ranked Rowan University (#9).
Megan played her club soccer for the San Diego Surf and was coached most recently by Jennifer Tanaka. In high school she was a three-time All-Moore League player for the Long Beach Poly Jackrabbits and in her senior season was also named to the All-CIF-SS Division I First Team (largest schools). Megan was also named to both the exclusive NSCAA Far West All-Region Team and the NSCAA Far West Region Scholar American Team. Her accolades in HS continued by being named one of only eight recipients of the 2010 Southern California Coaches Association Senior Scholarship Award Winners. She was also honored as a member of the Long Beach Press-Telegram’s “Dream Team” for 2010.
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Amber Famiglietti – (Tampa, FL; Berkeley Prep)
Amber Famiglietti is a strong attacking player who has found a nose for the goal. She has been slowed down a little bit this pre-season by a minor knee injury but the future looks bright for this budding star.
Amber played her club soccer for First Coast and Strictly Soccer. She was a member of the Florida ODP State team for several years and was a varsity starter for her High School team since the eighth grade. Her illustrious career at Berkeley was capped off with a trip to the Florida State Championship in which Berkeley lost in a shootout. Amber led her team with 20 goals and 13 assists in her senior season garnering both the Hillsborough County Girls soccer player of the year award and a First-Team All-State honor. She also received the Jose Alvarez Hillsborough County Outstanding Soccer Player of the Year Award for exemplifying excellence both on and off the field. Finishing off her high school awards in June of this year Amber was named a 2010 ESPN Rise Florida Top-Player as a part of ESPN’s All-American list.
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Aly Passanante – (Princeton, NJ; The George School)
Aly Passanante is an incredibly versatile player with strong defensive tendencies who is also comfortable in the attacking third of the field. She has proven this preseason that she will excel anywhere you put her and a soccer ball together.
Prior to arriving at Swarthmore Aly played her club ball for YMS and won a State Cup Championship. She also spent time with the NJ State ODP team. Aly was an outstanding high school player who started and made all conference for four years. In the George School’s first Friends School League Championship Aly was the team’s leading scorer as well as topping the assist column. Aly garnered some illustrious awards for her play, making the PA All-State First Team, the Eastern PA First Team and the ESPN Rise top Philly Athlete list in her high school career.
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Lisa Patusky – (Norwalk, OH; Norwalk HS)
Lisa Patusky knows how to find the back of the net. She is a strong, athletic and fast player with “that” goal-scoring quality which is hard to find on the soccer landscape. She has been working hard in the preseason to find her rhythm with her new team’s attacking style as the nets around the Centennial Conference are starting to get nervous.
As a freshman in high school she broke the school record for assists in a season (22) in her first varsity campaign. As impressive as her assists were that year she also scored 26 goals and ended with 74 points on the year. That torrid pace didn’t slow down her remaining three years as she was named to the all-district team each of her four years and finished her high school career with 102 goals. She was named the District Player of the Year as well as Ohio Division 1 First Team All-State. Fandy.com Magazine named her the Girls Soccer Player of the Year as well she was named to the exclusive NSCAA all-region team as a junior. She capped off her high school career being recognized as one of only 12 forwards in the country named an NSCAA Girls High School Scholar All-America for 2009.
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McCleary Philbin – (Sherborn, MA; Dover Sherborn HS)
McCleary Philbin is just recovering from an ACL surgery that she tore during her senior year high school basketball season. Her progress has been amazing in a short period of time and she is ahead of where the coaches expected her to be at this point in the preseason. Her progress back has the Garnet excited about what she’ll be able to do for them and her play already has her proving herself as a playmaker.
McCleary was a six-year club captain for her Charles River United team and was a multi-sport athlete at Dover Sherborn. She was a two time HS MVP and league All-Star with the soccer team. To close out her senior year she was named to both the Eastern Massachusetts All Star team and more impressively the Massachusetts All-State Team.
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Katie Sipiora – (Folsom, CA; Vista Del Lago High School)
Katie Sipiora is a steady-handed goalkeeper with great range who can cover all-corners of the goal with dance-like agility and mobility. Her communication style is welcomed to the Garnet defense and she has proven in her performances this preseason that she’s got the potential to be one to watch on the goal line the next several years.
Katie played her club ball with the San Juan Spirits and Placer United. While with Placer United Katie won both the US Club West Regional Championships and the US Club National Champions for her age group in 2008. During her HS career she played for both Folsom High School and Vista Del Lago and was a captain for several seasons.
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Lauren Lew – (Ardsley, NY; Ardsley High School)
Lauren Lew unfortunately will not be seeing any action this season after tearing her ACL in training this summer before arriving to preseason. She’s already had her surgery and is starting her rehab in the next few weeks. Lauren is a very good player who comes to Swarthmore with a hard-to-handle shiftiness in the midfield that the Garnet will look to develop into their scheme next season.
Lauren played her club ball for the Patriots FC out of New York. In high school she was her teams player of the year, a two-time all-league selection, and named to the All-Section team. According to Maxpreps.com she was one of the top 30 goal scorers in the country early in her sophomore year averaging 1.714 goals per game with twelve goals in her first seven games.
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Kelly Schultz – (Piedmont, CA; Thacher)
Kelly Schultz is a good athlete out of California who plans to play both soccer and lacrosse for the Garnet. A sprained MCL two weeks before preseason has prevented her from participating with the women’s soccer team to date but the hope is a speedy recovery will have her training with the group in no time.
Kelly played club soccer for the strong California Northstars program near Piedmont, CA but attended High School outside of Santa Barbara at the Thacher School. While at Thacher Kelly played varsity soccer for four years and was the MVP for both the soccer and the Lacrosse teams in her senior season.