Steinert senior goalie Alexandrea Zaburski, who played for the Spartans ice hockey team last winter had a stellar start to her season Tuesday with 22 saves (Photo by Rich Fisher)
By Rich Fisher
Fish4scores.com
Sep. 5: Forget the “every cloud has a silver lining” cliché. When it comes to Steinert field hockey, the Spartans opening day cloud actually had a lining filled with solid gold.
Steinert dropped an 8-0 decision to visiting Southern Regional Tuesday and did not get a shot on goal. The Rams, who have won 46 games over the past three seasons under coach Jenna “J-Lo” Lombardo, launched 30 on the Spartans goal.
But senior Alexandrea Zaburski was good as gold, saving 22 of them. Several of the saves were outstanding.
“She played very well today,” coach Alyson Setzer said. “They had a lot of spot on shots. She saved them, she took the aerials, she did well.”
Zaburski was loving every minute of it.
“It was a fun feeling,” she said. “All the adrenaline you deal with going into the game, it’s a lot of fun and I’m glad to be on the team.”
And the team is glad to have her, as Steinert is extremely young this year and will need someone to keep it in games as the players come together. And while Setzer thought the Spartans took a step back performance-wise from their last scrimmage, Zaburski feels things are slowly coming together.
“We’re working a lot better on communication,” she said. “We’re moving around a lot more. The defense is getting a lot better. We’re still working as a team. Overall for a team as good as they are, we did pretty good as well.”
Indeed, after one half Southern only had a 2-0 lead. Steinert allowed an early goal 3:14 into the game, but did not falter again until there was 2:52 remaining. The Rams got it together after intermission, however, to score six times.
But Zaburski still did some nifty things as she gears up for her first season as the full-time goalie after sharing the position her previous two years.
She did not even play goalie until her freshman year.
“I played in middle school on defense and midfield once in a while,” she said. “When I got here we needed goalies There are not a lot of goalies around. I said ‘No one’s gonna do it, I’ll take a chance and do it.’ I’ve never regretted it. I’ll recommend it to anybody.”
Alexandrea had a unique way of preparing for this season. Rather than go to camps or clinics, she played on the Spartans ice hockey team last winter and found the speed of boys on skates good prep work.
“That definitely helped build up my upper body strength and get my timing down more,” she said. “It helped me gain the speed to actually make saves and all that stuff.
“It helped with better foot movement. You know you have to move fast because on the ice. If you don’t move fast and you just stop, you’re more likely to fall on your butt. So it just helps keep you moving; keeps you always getting ready because you’re always transitioning. You always have to pay attention to the game. I think it helped me focus a lot better.”
For one game, at least, that was fairly obvious.
Hamilton falls despite big game by Courtney
It was almost a carbon copy of the Steinert game at Hamilton West, as the Hornets dropped a 7-0 decision to Northern Burlington.
Like Southern, NBC only led 2-0 at the half but blew it open with five goals in the second. But like Steinert, West got a big game from it’s goalie as Moira Courtney made 16 saves.
