Mineola senior forward Nina Ribeiro has been an absolute force on the soccer field this season for the Lady Mustangs. She is tied with junior Nicole Forte for most goals scored (16) and has helped Mineola attain a perfect 7-0 conference record.
“She is definitely a special player,” head coach Katherine Bennett said. “She is very skilled with the ball knowing where to place it once she's near the goal and always knows where her teammates are on the field.”
Ribeiro was at her best once again on Tuesday afternoon, scoring three goals to shutout the Sewanhaka Lady Indians, 3-0 at Mineola High School during the team’s final regular season game. She almost had a fourth goal as one of her shots hit the crossbar and then bounced back into the field of play.
“If we handed out the final season awards now she would certainly be our MVP at the forward position,” Bennett said, also crediting Mineola’s defense saying they were instrumental in keeping Sewanhaka’s offense out of the box.
“The score was 1-0 in our favor for a long time and Sewanhaka is a good team who could have tied up the game at any time. Our sweeper, Julianne Falotico did an excellent job of clearing a lot of balls.”
This is the second time in four days that the Lady Mustangs faced Sewanhaka, playing them last Friday at Sewanhaka High School and escaping with a 2-1 victory.
Mineola will now face South Side in the first round of playoffs at Dean Skelos Field in Rockville Centre on Friday at 4:30 p.m. South Side is the number one seed in the playoff bracket.
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