CMSV women will go as far as Barone, Carroll take them

Mount St. Vincent women’s basketball coach Laura Pruitt saw a lot go right for the Dolphins in her first season at the helm last year. Mount St. Vincent not only finished her initial season with a robust 17-9 overall record, including a sterling 13-3 mark in the Skyline Conference, but the Dolphins also reached the semifinals in the conference tournament where they ultimately bowed out to Old Westbury.

But this season the Dolphins return 12 players from that 17-win team and that contingent will be led by a pair of 5-2 guards from Staten Island who will have a lot to say about how well the Dolphins do this season.

Christina Barone has been named to the Skyline All-Conference teams in each of her three seasons in Riverdale with the past two seasons finding her earning First Team accolades. The guard out of Tottenville High School has a chance to eclipse the 1,000-point plateau this season as she enters the year just 95 points shy of the mark. But Barone can also etch her name in another section of the Dolphins’ record books as she stands just 53 assists away from becoming the career assists leader at Mount. Barone enters the season with 536 assists and has her sights set on the record of 589 which was set by former Dolphin great Lauren Percodani during her career which spanned from 2006-2010.

Barone will be joined in the Dolphins backcourt by another talented senior who can also top the 1,000-point career mark and she actually enters the 2016-17 season with one more career point than Barone. That total of 906 points belongs to Brittany Carroll, another Staten Island native who played her high school ball at Curtis High School.

If Barone and Carroll do top the 1,000-point mark this season as expected, they will become just the seventh and eighth members of the 1,000-point club in Mount St. Vincent history. Barone and Carroll will also be the top two leading returning scorers for the Dolphins this season as Barone averaged 11.2 points a year ago while Carroll chipped in with 10.6.  Junior Kristen Merrell – yet another Staten Island product from St. John Villa High School – will bring her 9.1 points-per-game average back this season while junior Kelly Nola (yes, also from Staten Island, she went to Port Richmond High School) will be a key returnee after averaging seven points a game last season.

The Dolphins were picked to finish in third place in the Skyline Conference Preseason Poll this season after receiving 67 votes. Sage College comes in as the preseason conference favorite after garnering 74 votes. Old Westbury claimed second place with 72 votes.

Pruitt’s second season at The Mount is set to tip off on Friday, Nov. 18 when the Dolphins will take on Rowan in a tournament in Ashton, Pennsylvania at 3 p.m. The consolation and championship games will be held on Saturday, Nov. 19. The Dolphins will play their first home game on Wednesday, Nov. 23 when they will host NYU in a non-conference game at 12 p.m.