In the midst of a nerve-wracking MCAL championship game against Justin Siena, varsity girls’ basketball captain Ariella Rosenthal lowered her shoulders down, took her first dribble, and flew past defenders on her way to the basket.

The move is not a strange one for Rosenthal, a four-year varsity basketball and lacrosse athlete. She has called it her go-to move.

“I love taking that first step, then hopefully beating the defender,” she said. “There is nothing like that. That explosive first step and getting to the rim, it’s just really satisfying.”

Rosenthal led the team with 14 ppg, earning her the title of MCAL Player of the Year and becoming the first girls’ basketball MCAL athlete to score 1,000 points over the course of their MCAL career.

She was named to MCAL all-league second team during her sophomore year, and earned first team honors in both her junior and senior campaigns.

Though the team failed to bring home the MCAL pennant, Rosenthal said she would not change her experience.

“Obviously not winning the MCAL championship was hard,” she said. “ But we fought to the end, we lost by only four points in the championship game. We just never gave up.”

Giving up is not in Rosenthal’s vocabulary.

“The offseason, that’s the biggest time to work on my game,” she said. “Because during the season we are working on a lot of team stuff, so it is not focused on individual growth. In the offseason, I can either sit around and be lazy about it or I can go to the gym and work on my game.”

 She has been working on her game since the third grade, when she was finally given an outlet to get her agression out after growing up with two brothers. Now, almost nine years later, she has committed to play basketball for Division III school Vassar College.

“When I was little, I used to write that my dream was to play in high school and then hopefully college, but I never thought that would really happen,” she said.

Rosenthal said she never goes a long period of time without playing basketball. She plays for Redwood and for the Strictly Hoops AAU team during the offseason, where she spends almost two and a half hours a day practicing.

“I always find room for improvement,” she said. “I have so much competition next year.”

But working on her game has not been easy. Not only has she been balancing basketball and academics, she has also been balancing four years of varsity lacrosse where she is second on the team for points per game with an average of 3.4.

“I want to play as long as I can,” she said.

Even with all the hours of practice on the court, Rosenthal’s nerves still flare up before games.

“The butterflies haven’t gone away,” she said. “It’s the perfect amount of adrenaline and anticipation. If you go into it and you’re not really thinking, it’s bad. You can’t be nonchalant about it.”

Those butterflies have allowed her to flourish on the court as a leader.

“When I was a freshman my biggest weakness was not having confidence in my game,” she said. “But once I started learning from the seniors before me, I just grew into them.”