The Rye girls basketball team didn’t just win the section title last year. They did it with one of the area’s youngest starting lineups.
Four starters return from a Garnet squad that went 21-4 and won the Section 1 tournament in Westchester County Center before falling in the regional final to Baldwin, the eventual Class AA state champions. Despite losing three seniors, the Garnets are in a solid position to make another deep postseason run.
Among the eight returning varsity players are senior captains Paige Tepedino and Phoebe Greto, a Division III Denison University commit who was section tournament MVP last year.
“She is going to be expected to do a lot for us this season on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively,” seventh-year Rye head coach Margo Hackett said of Greto.
Other standout returners include junior forward Frankie Chiaravalle and freshman guard Charlotte Storz, both high-production players who will be reliable contributors for the Garnets. As an eighth-grade varsity player last year, Storz joined the starting lineup in the postseason and was described by Hackett as a “rare talent.”
“I started her on JV last season, and she had 42 points in a game,” Hackett said. “I looked at my JV coach and I said, ‘I think it’s time we bring her up’ … She’s a talent you don’t get often.”
Hackett also recognized Chiaravalle for having “worked tremendously hard this offseason, and has had a great start so far this season.”
The remaining four returners are senior guard Annie Toulouse, sophomore guard Stella Maresca, junior guard/forward Ella Poole, and junior guard Elizabeth Schwartzman.
Five newcomers are joining the 2025-26 team, including two freshmen (Ashley Alosi and Estela Canet), one sophomore (Madison Giamanco), and two seniors (Arabella Roberts and Valeria Medina). Medina may be new to the basketball team, but she is no stranger to success, having served as a captain alongside Greto on the volleyball team, which just won a section title in the fall.
Aside from striving to reach new heights in the postseason, Hackett’s goals for her group this year come down to improvement, both individually and as a unit.
“They’re a terrific group of girls,” Hackett said. “They just work hard, and they have fun. They’re a very coachable group. It’s just getting better every day … and getting better cohesively as a team.”
Rye’s season opener is 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Eastchester. The first four games are on the road for the Garnets, who will host back-to-back home games Dec. 19 against Eastchester and Dec. 23 against Harrison before the two-week holiday break.
