Basketball 2015-2016
St. Mary's Naas met Dingle Community School in the All Ireland U19B semi finals in University of Limerick on the 13th January 2016. St Mary's got off to a flying start with baskets from Mary Creaton and Nicole Clancy coupled with free throws from Áine Conway giving them an early 6 nil lead. While Dingle fought bravely St Mary's well run offence coupled with tough defence saw Naas lead at half time by 15 points. Scores in the second half from Ciara Friel, Eimear O'Neill, Grace Casey and Hannah Heveran extended St. Mary's lead and tough defence from Georgia Mc Holmes, Rachel Naughton and Margaret Mullanney and good rebounding by Áine Conway and Kate Coffey ensured that Dingle did not close the gap. Nicole Clancy, who finished the match as top scorer with 28 points, and Mary Creaton, kept the Naas scoring going and St. Mary's ran out eventual winners by 53 points to 28 points. The All Ireland Finals will be held in the last week of January and St. Mary's will meed St. Paul's from Oughterard in Galway in the final.
Senior Basketball Match Reports (Ciara Friel - Sports Assistant)
The senior basketball team has had a strong start to its campaign this year. This year’s team includes Áine Conway (Captain), Mary Creaton, Hannah Heveran, Georgia McHolmes, Margaret Mullaney, Kate Coffey, Eimear O’Neill, Grace Casey, Rachel Naughton, Kate O’Callaghan, Ciara Friel and Nicole Clancy. The first match was away in the Ursuline in Thurles in Tipperary on the 8th of October. It was the first Senior League Match. This was the girls’ first match back in a while so they stepped up their game as the match went along. The girls continued on to win the game. The final score was 41-21The top scorers of the day from St.Mary’s were Aine Conway, Mary Creaton and Hannah Heveran.
The next league match was at home against Confey on October 13th. The girls dominated the boards throughout the whole match and went on to win the match with a scoreline of 65-4. It was a brilliant team effort displayed by the girls.
The first Senior All-Ireland Cup match was on the 19th of October away in Scoil Ruain in Killenaule in Tipperary. This was a must win match or else the girls would be knocked out. The girls got off to a slow start but really got into the game as it progressed. The girls fought hard and showed excellent team work. The girls won out the match 47-14 which ensures them a place in the All-Ireland Cup Quarter Finals. Best wishes for a speedy recovery to Eimear O’Neill and Mary Creaton who both picked up injuries during the match. The top scorers of the day were Áine Conway and Nicole Clancy.
International Basketball Cap for Nicole
Congratulations to Nicole Clancy 3rd year on making her international debut against Scotland and on 
receiving her first International cap ( Nicole's sister Shauna, in the photo, is a former St. Mary's College pupil and basketball player with SMC )
As part of the pre Euro 2016 programme the Irish team will travel to Denmark at the start of April where
they will play a tournament against Denmark and Norway.
This is followed by a trip to Luxembourg at the start of August where the play against Luxembourg,
Holland, Belgium and Slovakia.
The final event is the big one which is the European Championships in August. This is held in Oradeau Romania and will run for two weeks. Ireland are in Group D where they will play England, Scotland, Finland, Georgia and Bosnia.
Soccer 2015-2016
St.Marys College U15's playing against St.Kevins in Dunlavin.
St.Mary's College u15's soccer team were playing against S.Kevin's Dunlavin on the 14th March.
Ten minutes into the match St.Mary's got the first goal by Sofia DiStefano to Lia Reilly straight into the goal.
They were delighted. Another amazing pass was made from Gráinne Dowling to Grace Duffy into the goal.
Great save from goalie Sarah Buggy. Grace Duffy was playing great in midfield, Also a great save from Grace Duffy.
Lovely goal from Sofia,
making the score 3-0. Great goal from Aoife Stynes. It was a lovely sunny day for a match that was played on
St.Mary's soccer pitch. At half time the two teams took a break and had a little talk. When second half started,
Hannah Goodfellow, Gráinne Dowling, Catherine Connell, Grace Duffy, and Katelin Hughes came off and our
five substitutes came on which were Roz McDonnell, Abby Cahill, Emma Lawler, Aisling Banpury, and Hannah Plunket.
The game finished with 2 goals from Sofia DiStefano., 1 goal by Emma Lawler and a fantastic goal from Gráinne Dowling.
Super tackle from Hannah Goodfellow. Roz McDonnell scored an amazing goal earning a cheer from her team-mates.
St.Kevin's got a free kick. There was time wasted from St.Kevins due to injury to one of the players on their team.
Today St.Mary's played an excellent game winning 9-0 against St.Kevin's in Dunlavin.
Best for St.Mary's were Sofia DiStefano, Roz McDonnell, Emma Lawler, and Gráinne Dowling.
St Mary's win Leinster Quarter Final December 2015
by destroying Leinster champions (by Megan Finn)
St. Mary’s had their Leinster quarter final match on 3rd of December against last year’s Leinster champions Eureka, Kells. The girls were anxious for the match ahead on the long bus journey up. The match was played on a knee deep mud pitch and the weather was wet and miserable which didn't make it too easy to play in. St Mary’s girls started off the game which was played at a fast pace despite the wet weather conditions. Kells scored the first goal of the match but St. Mary’s battled on and a tremendous effort from Alice Linehan saw her finish the ball in the back of the net. The teams went into half time level.
During the second half St. Mary’s girls took control of the game and with Kelly Perkins scoring 2 goals , Leah Reilly scoring 3 goals and Emma Byrne scoring 1 goal the quarter final was well and truly in the bag for St. Mary’s. Well done to all who played so well. Best for St. Mary's were Ciara Breslin, Eva Murphy, Leah Reilly, Kelly Perkins & Amy Jones.
Naas win battle of the Mary’s in close cup game
ST MARY’S NAAS 3 ST MARY’S KILLESTER 2
The girls started their senior soccer season off with a hard fought victory away to Killester. The team missing a total of 13 senior players from last season found themselves in a real tough game on a tight pitch with a huge home support cheering on the opposition. The loss of Katelyn Dowd the day before the game and with Emma Byrne on the bench coming back from a long term injury made the task even harder. It wasn’t a surprise that the Naas girls started slowly and their inexperience showed when after 10 mins they were caught out by a quick throw which resulted in the ball being knocked down for no 10 to finish from close range giving Mary Creaton no chance in the St Mary’s goal. This was followed soon after by the loss of Midfielder Laura Messit through injury.
The girls settled into the game after this and Alice Linehan and Amy Jones both had chances before half time. It was Amy Jones who equalised for St Mary’s just before half time when an excellent through ball from Alison Walsh saw Amy outpace the defence and finish to the right corner of the net.
The 2nd half saw St Mary’s take control of the game. Alison Walsh was having an excellent game organising a whole new back line with Eva Murphy, Zara Wright and Laoise Dunne. The team looked solid and with Sorcha Woods and Grace Kellaghan holding midfield, the girls began to get on top of the opposition. Emma Byrne came on up front and began linking well with Grace Casey, which saw both with chances to give St Mary’s the lead early in the 2nd half. However it was the opposition who went 2-1 ahead when a speculative free kick struck the unlucky Zara Wright sending Mary the wrong way in goal and settling the ball in the bottom corner of the net.
The girls came right back into the game however and were awarded a penalty with 15mins to go, however Alice Linehan slipped while shooting and put the ball over the bar. The girls never gave up though and from the restart excellent play from Emma and Grace saw Grace play the ball through to Alice who held off the defender to drive the ball home for 2-2.
With time almost up Emma Byrne won a free kick on halfway. Emma took it herself and played the ball over the top where Alice had timed her run perfectly to latch onto the ball and blast it to the roof of the Killester net. The girls avoided a last minute scare when a corner resulted in the ball being cleared off the line no fewer than three times before being cleared and the girls held on for the 3-2 win and now meet Stillorgan in the next round.
Best for St. Mary’s on the day were Eva Murphy, Alison Walsh, Grace Kellaghan, Sorcha Woods, Laoise Dunne & Alice Linehan.