Salisbury Press

Salisbury’s girls basketball team finished below .500 in the Colonial League last season for the first time in quite some time. And its seven conference wins were its lowest since the Lady Falcons went 9-7 back in 2013.

Head coach Joe Mladosich stepped down after spending six years with Salisbury. His team’s went 81-66 since he took over in 2013. But the Lady Falcons’ didn’t have to look far for their next coach.

Head coach Patrick O’Conor took over to lead the Salisbury swimming team in 2015. This winter might be the season in which his most talented girls’ unit comes to fruition.

Leading that group is senior Sarah Bobeck, a 10th-place finisher at states in the 500-yard freestyle (5:14.36). Bobeck was also a two-time gold medalist in her individual events at districts last winter, winning both the 500- and 50-yard freestyles.

BJordan Kamp’s redshirt sophomore season got off to a solid start in goal for the St. John’s women’s soccer team. She saw time between the pipes in each of the Red Storm’s two preseason games and started against nationally-ranked Tennessee in the season opener.

But two games later, Kamp suffered a thumb injury in pregame workouts against Syracuse in late August. She played in just four games (two starts) the rest of the way before her season was shut down in late September.

Kelly Gardus has only been on the campus of Ursinus College for a few months. She is preparing for her first winter break and plans to spend time back home in the Lehigh Valley in a couple of weeks.

Despite only being a member of the Bears’ women’s soccer team for a short time, Gardus has been impressive on the pitch. The freshman played in 14 of Ursinus’ 17 games—including two starts—and scored five goals as the Bears finished the fall season at 8-7-1.

During the summer of 2017, Salisbury’s Rylee Donaldson gave her verbal commitment to continue her soccer career at Bucknell University. She was just heading into her junior year of high school at that time. The Falcons’ all-time leading scorer made it official last week.

Donaldson, now a senior, inked her letter of intent at a ceremony last Monday at Salisbury High School to continue her soccer career as a member of the Bison. She’ll join a Bucknell team that went 5-4 in the Patriot League and qualified for the league tournament quarterfinals.

Several Salisbury High School graduates have had exceptional athletic seasons at the college level. Here is a look at some of them.

West Chester sophomore Leandra Roelker recently capped the fall portion of her second tennis season as a member of the Golden Rams. She went 5-2 in singles play (1-1 in the PSAC) and picked up three more wins on the doubles circuit. The team will resume play on March 9 at Webber University.

Due to some injuries, Salisbury head coach Rick Babyak had to make a few last-minute adjustments prior to last week’s district semifinal game.

It took some time for those changes to smooth out on the field. Palisades capitalized early and then separated itself late.

The No. 2 seed Pirates (18-3-2 overall) scored in the 8th minute and added two more goals to defeat No. 3 Salisbury, 3-0, in a District 11 Class 2A semifinal game last Tuesday at Emmaus High School’s Memorial Field.

Palisades went on to defeat Central Catholic in the championship game two days later.

Southern Lehigh’s offense came into Salisbury on fire last week. The Spartans, which entered the regular season finale with five consecutive 40-plus point games, eclipsed the 50-point mark in each of their prior two contests.

The Spartans did that once again on Friday night.

Quarterback Logan Edmond accounted for five total touchdowns, and Southern Lehigh (7-3) erupted for a 50-0 victory over the Falcons at Salisbury High School.

The chemistry between seniors Rylee Donaldson and Erica Holben is easy to spot on the soccer field. It’s won Salisbury plenty of games over their four-year careers.

Last Thursday night, the pair helped the Falcons pull out their biggest victory this season.

Donaldson set up Holben for the game’s only goal that sent No. 3 Salisbury into the District 11 Class 2A semifinals with a 1-0 victory over No. 6 Tamaqua last week. The win sets up a semifinal matchup with No. 2 Palisades on Tuesday. Semifinal results were not available at time of press.

Salisbury field hockey head coach Jane Brennan knew last week’s district playoff game against Southern Lehigh could go either way.

The teams split their two regular season contests against Southern Lehigh. The latest meeting in the regular season finale saw Salisbury pull away with a 4-3 victory. But the Falcons knew the third meeting would be tough, especially after the Spartans advanced to the Colonial League championship game against Bangor.