One team is making its third semifinals appearance in the past 10 years, the other its second state semifinals appearance in three years. Our Lady of Mercy and Utica Notre Dame (III) are lined up to battle in the NYS Class A semifinals. Here’s the breakdown:
OUR LADY OF MERCY MONARCHS
16-9 / Private/Parochial / No. 5 NYSSWA
vs.
UTICA NOTRE DAME JUGGLERS
24-0 / Tri-Valley League / No. 1 NYSSWA
Section III
Saturday, Hudson Valley Community College, 10:00 a.m.
VIEW MORE PHOTOS FROM JENNIFER LAEMLEIN.
How they arrived here: Our Lady of Mercy defeated YWCP/EMHCS (69-46), East (56-44) and Honeoye Falls-Lima (54-35) to make the state tournament where they then beat Lake Shore (54-46) and Honeoye Falls-Lima (41-40). Utica Notre Dame cruised past Chittenango (79-30), Jamesville-DeWitt (73-44) and Christian Brothers Academy (53-29) to make the state tournament, beating Franklin Academy (79-21) in the quarterfinals.
Scoring offense: Our Lady of Mercy (51.7), Utica Notre Dame (70.6)
Scoring defense: Our Lady of Mercy (41.7), Utica Notre Dame (37.2)
Trends: Our Lady of Mercy enters with a six-game win streak which includes four double-digit victories. Utica Notre Dame enters as the only remaining undefeated team in Class A, winning 22 games by double-digits including 10 straight before this matchup.
Players to watch for Our Lady of Mercy: Laura Kosten Sr. (12 PPG, 6.0 RPG); Emerson Wandtke Fr. (15 PPG, 8.0 RPG, 3 BLK/G); Angelina Borrelli Jr. (5.0 PPG, 5.0 APG); Robin Jones Sr. (6.0 PPG, six RPG); Bridget Wise Sr. (5.0 PPG, 4.0 RPG).
Utica Notre Dame: Ella Trinkaus Sr. (28.2 PPG, 14.5 RPG, 6.1 APG, 4.2 BLK/G, 3.8 STL/G); Erin Trinkaus Sr. (12.5 PPG, 8.4 RPG, 3.6 APG, three STL/G, 2.5 BLK/G); Lily Johnson So (12 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 3.6 APG, 2.8 STL/G); Jules Otis So. (5.5 PPG, 3.5 RRPG, two APG, 0.9 STL/G); Emma Johnson Sr. (5.0 PPG, 2.2 RPG, 2.0 APG, 1.2 STL/G).
Coaches: Tom McDonough (Our Lady of Mercy), John Snyder (Utica Notre Dame)
History 101: Mercy is making its fifth state semifinal appearance. The Monarchs also reached the final four in 1985, ’89, ’16 and ’17. Mercy won the 1985 Class A – at the time the highest classification in New York State. Utica Notre Dame won the 2024 NYS Class B championship.
More history: Section V teams have combined for 28 state championships over the years. Only Section I (39) and Section III (29) have won more. Section V has claimed 14 large-school titles: Webster Schroeder (’23, AA), Bishop Kearney (’22, AA), Pittsford Mendon (’19, A), Pittsford Sutherland (’14, A), East High (’12, A), Newark (’09, A), Rush-Henrietta (’08, AA), Rush-Henrietta (’07, AA), Rush-Henrietta (’06, AA), Pittsford Sutherland (’06, A), Honeoye Falls-Lima (’05, A), Greece Arcadia (’04, AA), Penn Yan (’86, B), Our Lady of Mercy (’85, A).
*From 1981-2003, teams competed at four different classifications: A,B, C and D. Classes A and B were considered Large School.
What’s at stake: A spot in the Class A state finals against either Albany Academy (2/22-2 No. 2 NYSSWA) or Tappan Zee (I/21-4 No. 3 NYSSWA) on Sunday.
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