Published on: Thursday, December 06, 2012

By Brandy L. Simms

OLNEY - There’s no doubt the Good Counsel girls basketball team enters the 2012-2013 campaign with lofty goals.

Despite the graduation of Faith Randolph, the Falcons still have high expectations this season. Randolph, who has moved onto greener pastures at the University of Virginia, was named the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference Player of the Year last season after helping guide the Olney private school to a league championship that included a perfect 21-0 mark in the conference.

Last summer, Good Counsel captured first place honors in the Best of Maryland Basketball Tournament against elite competition and thus earned a MaxPreps.com preseason national ranking.

Among the returnees are four-year starter Amanda Fioravanti, a 6-foot-1 forward who averaged a double-double last season and was named first-team all-conference. The Virginia recruit knows what lies ahead for Good Counsel.

“Last year wasn’t easy and repeating, we’re just thinking about it and it’s going to be even harder,” said Fioravanti, an All-Sentinel performer who averaged 17.7 points and 10.7 rebounds per game as a junior. “We have the biggest target on our back. Everyone wants to beat Good Counsel.”

Fioravanti will be joined by fellow Division I prospects Lindsey Spann (Penn State) and Jordan Light (American). However, Spann, a 5-foot-7 point guard who earned first-team all-conference honors last season, will be sidelined for a few weeks with a fractured bone in her foot according to Good Counsel head coach Tom Splaine.

“It is a lot of pressure [being nationally ranked] but we just want to keep doing what we’re doing and keep looking forward to our next games,” said Fioravanti, “because since Lindsey’s out we have players that have to step up to her spot and that’s a lot of pressure for them but they’re working their butts off so it’s good.”