The girls basketball team has been one of Nassau County’s top teams thus far. With a staggering overall record of 9-2, the Lady Vikings find themselves in prime position to make a deep playoff run this February.

At this point, the girls are sitting in second place in the conference behind the undefeated Baldwin Bruins, with a record of 3-1 against Nassau AA-II competition. In the last three weeks, the team has turned in decisive statement wins over conference foes Hicksville, Plainview JFK, and Westbury.

After finishing the non-conference stage of the season with a record of 6-1, the Lady Vikings knew that they have what it takes to be successful against Nassau AA-II opponents. So far, the team’s success has carried over into the conference portion of their schedule. In their first conference game of the season, the girls defeated the Plainview JFK Hawks on the road with a score of 43-38.

Junior Tyler Owens paved the way for the Lady Vikings’ success by scoring a team-high 13 points, and senior Rachel Rosen controlled the boards by pulling down 11 rebounds. The girls proved that they were ready to play from the tip off by outscoring the Hawks 16-4 in the first quarter of play.

Two weeks later, the Lady Vikings came away with another five-point victory. This time, their opponents were the Hicksville Comets. In this conference showdown, Owens once again took the reins on offense, scoring a team-high 15 points that contributed to the team’s 44-39 win. Owens proved to be most effective while utilizing her long-range jump shot as she knocked down three shots from beyond the three point arc. In the fourth quarter, the Port held off a potential Hicksville comeback by outscoring the Comets 14-13. Rachel Rosen sealed the deal by making a pair of free throws to put the Lady Vikings up by five with 1.9 seconds left.

On Saturday, Jan. 7, the girls basketball team hit the road once again to take on the Westbury Green Dragons. In spite of the long bus ride and snowstorm conditions,  the girls came out ready to play and trounced Westbury by a 39 point margin on their way to a 61-22 victory.

The Lady Vikings outscored the Green Dragons by at least eight points in each quarter, and they capped off the game with an assertion of dominance in a 14-0 fourth quarter run.

Once again, Tyler Owens led the team with 16 points and hit multiple three-pointers. Rachel Rosen also contributed 11 points, and junior Stevie Weingard and sophomore Caitlin Kane each added 6 points. The win improved Port’s conference record to 3-1, while the defeat dropped Westbury’s overall record to 0-5.

When conference competition tipped off on Dec. 20, the Lady Vikings knew that a lot of people didn’t expect much from such a young team. Despite the fact that only two seniors are on the roster, the team hasn’t had any shortage of leadership at all so far this winter.

“Although there are only two seniors, they’re very good at always keeping everybody motivated and establishing a high competition level during practice. It also helps that half of the team consists of juniors who are learning to act like the seniors,” said junior Rebecca Rosen.

The team focuses high-intensity practices, and they aim to get better every day. With this mindset, the Lady Vikings roster will be ready to compete with Nassau AA powerhouses like Baldwin (6-0), Massapequa (7-2), and MacArthur (8-2) by the end of February.

As for the Lady Vikings’ upcoming schedule, they’ll host Westbury at 6:30pm on Feb. 1, travel to East Meadow on Feb. 4, and then host Valley Stream Central on Feb. 10 at noon to close out the regular season.