High-scoring junior leads Fontbonne to first win

Noelle Polanco entered Fontbonne’s 2023-2024 varsity basketball season with 908 points from her last two seasons with the team. Now as a junior, it’s just a matter of time before she gets to sink her 1,000th point, either in December or January. When she accomplishes her goal, she will become the youngest and the quickest Fontbonne player to do so, surpassing the school’s first 1,000-point scorer Katie Marquardt, who accomplished the feat as senior in January 2018. 

After an opening season 72-45 loss to St. Joseph Hill in Staten Island, where Polanco scored 15 points, the junior narrowed the gap by scoring 31 points in her next game against St. Dominic’s of Syosset for a grand total of 954 points. For their first win of the season at home, the Bonnies played their traditional non-league competitors from Long Island for a hard-fought 57-46 victory. 

Joining the varsity to fill two available roster spots are sophomore Lucy Kuhlmann and junior Rebecca Dileo from last season’s JV team. Kuhlmann replaces Polanco as the team’s point guard, while Polanco moves to shooting guard. With her height and quickness to score, varsity newcomer Dileo moves into a forward position, where she and Sharlotte Greene contend for valuable rebounds. As the third guard, playmaker Alex Somerville returns to her familiar spot, where she is adept at the steal as well as dishing out assists.