Marlboro’s Baldino repeats as First Team NJAC back
By tim morris
Staff Writer

Defensive players often play in anonymity on the soccer field. They can’t point to gaudy individual statistics to state their case. Their reward is simple: keeping teams off the scoreboard.

Richard Stockton College was one of the best women’s teams in the New Jersey Athletic Conference at keeping teams from putting the ball in the net. This fall the Ospreys held teams to a stingy .74 goals a game.

The leader of that defense is Marlboro High School graduate Christine Baldino. Her play did not go unnoticed by NJAC coaches. For the second straight year, the junior sweeper was named to the NJAC All-Conference First Team. Because she plays defense, it makes the honor that much greater a reward for the ex-Mustang because, unlike a scorer who can always point to stats, defensive players have to really separate themselves from the rest in order to be noticed.

"It’s a big accomplishment," she said. "It’s very exciting. You know your team has to have a good year to be considered."

Stockton had just such a season. Baldino led the Ospreys in one of their finest campaigns ever. They were ranked as high as 14th in the country, went 16-4-3 and won the ECAC Tournament, defeating Montclair State University, 2-1, in overtime in the final.

"When we put the ball in the net in overtime it was so thrilling and exciting," recalled Baldino. "It’s nice to go out a winner."

The ECAC title and second straight All-Conference honors (she was Honorable Mention all-conference as a freshman) are all the proof that Baldino needs to make her case as a winner.

While some players are born to score, others are naturals on defense. That is the case for Baldino, who thrives at her double-duty assignment of playing both defense and offense as a sweeper

"I’ve always been comfortable at sweeper," she pointed out. "I’ve been playing it since I was 7 years old.

"I love to play defense and I also love being a play-maker, making runs up the field to start something from the back," she added.

What Baldino is proudest of is her ball skills. She’s not a defender who just clears the ball by kicking it away. She can settle the ball, control it and trigger the transition to offense with her vision, dribbling and passing ability. That is the role of the sweeper back and no one is doing it better in the NJAC than the Osprey junior.

Baldino believes she has played better each season at Stockton and chalks it up to the best teacher of all, experience.

"I feel every year you gain more confidence and that makes you a better player," she said. "I can say that every year I’ve played better."

One of the highlights of the season for Baldino was the conference match with Ramapo College played in Pomona, home of the Ospreys. Playing forward for the visiting Roadrunners was Lisa Baldino, Christine’s younger sister. The sisters had been teammates for two years at Marlboro High School.

"It was intense," Baldino explained. "I was anxious about the game. Me and my sister are so close. It was weird. It was the first game we had played against each other. She was calling me up before the game on the bus ride asking me how much further they had to go. We were so excited to play."

For her part, Baldino’s scouting report on her sister to her Osprey defenders was to respect the freshman’s speed.

"I told our defense that Lisa is extremely fast and not to let her get by you," Baldino noted. Round one in the sister rivalry went to Christine with the Ospreys winning, 5-0. Round two will be in Ramapo next fall when it is she and the Ospreys who will make the long bus trip.

With the momentum of the ECAC title and a team that will lose just one starter, Baldino made it clear what her mission in 2003 is.

"I want to play in the NCAA, that’s my goal," she remarked.