City of Basketball Love

Finn Courtney (@finncourtney_)
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Nina Meixler’s basketball career is quite unique — it only started two years ago, and her senior season was her only one on varsity. 

And yet, through grit and long hours in the gym, she not only was a member of a New Hope-Solebury girls team vying for its second straight District 1 Class 3A title, she was a key in her first and only varsity campaign, creating shot after shot and finishing with eight assists and nine rebounds in the 49-27 district championship victory over Renaissance Academy on Saturday. 

“I mainly was focused on defending their best player; and I wasn’t too worried about my scoring, I was worried about setting up shots for my teammates,” Meixler said. “It feels a lot more like I earned it this year, because I was working, I was in the game more, the team was definitely harder this year too, so it’s totally a different feeling [but] it feels more rewarding.”

Fifth-year head coach Steve Polinsky has been overjoyed with her development in such a short span.

He first discovered her in her sophomore year. Meixler spent the past two years working with Polinsky and assistant coaches John Turner and Kalie Soulsb improved from JV to the starting point guard on a championship team.

New Hope-Solebury girls basketball celebrates Saturday at Harriton High School after beating Renaissance Charter for its second straight District 1 Class 3A championship. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

“At New Hope, you find out some kid can dribble and shoot, I try to get them, I got her,” Polinsky said.

“We thought definitely she was going to be a varsity player, so we wanted to try to groom her and [her skills]. Honestly, I’ve coached a lot of kids — to play two years of basketball and see what she has done, it’s just fascinating because she’s so into it too. She just plays the right way, she’s our hype girl, she gets the team into it, stuff like that which is all good, she’s been a joy to coach. I’m just shocked she started two years ago; imagine if we had her in eighth grade.”

While Meixler, who will attend Penn State or Georgia next year, has no plans to play in college beyond maybe club teams two college choices, her focus is on savoring her final few weeks with her teammates.

“It came with a lot of hard work. It’s totally a different game, JV to varsity, it was a lot of adjusting in the beginning, but now I have my role, I got it down and it’s been easier ever since halfway through the season [when] I really picked it up,” Meixler said.

“I’m really sad that it’s ending. I love my coaches, I love my teammates, I love everyone that supports me, so [I’m] trying to make it prolonged for as long as possible.”

The victory was a welcome one for the Lions, although bittersweet after the recent death of sophomore Kayla Fennel’s mother, Soby. Kayla, a starter, did not play Saturday. The Lions wore ribbons during the game for Soby.

“Our girls held it together and just got after it, good focus with good leaders, [they] really helped us maneuvering this whole situation, what’s going on with how upset they were,” Polinsky said. “[She] was a class act, and we all will miss her.”

The Lions jumped out to a 15-2 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. Scoring guard Izzy Elizondo led the way with a game-high 24 points on six 3-pointers, including four in the first half alone.

She went from a third option last year on a team with Regan Chrencik (now a freshman at Gettysburg) and Gabby D’Agonstio (transferred to The Hun School of Princeton) to the go-to option this year.

“This win was so much more meaningful just because it was such a hard-fought game, and we all earned it more,” Elizondo said. “I’m just enjoying it as much as I can. It’s definitely different, last year I was more of a role player, now I’m more of a shooter. It’s been fun, just having all my teammates help me out with getting all those shots, it’s been awesome.”

Elizondo is a three-year varsity starter and has talked to college programs but is still deciding about her next steps. Polinsky has enjoyed coaching her and considers her one of the area’s best shooters.

“When she’s on, it makes everyone else’s job easier and she works on her shot all the time, so we want her to shoot,” Polinsky said. “She’s got an open green light to shoot the basketball when she can, [and she’s] got one more year, I’m really excited for her future.”

Junior and fellow team captain Emily Wilson toughed out an ear infection for 14 points while forward Ella Dudick pulled down 12 rebounds, including seven hard-fought ones on the offensive end. Dudick’s only gotten better in her third season as a Lion, with Elizondo calling her “amazing” and Polinsky giving praise to her growth.

“[She’s] so important, I think sometimes she doesn’t understand how important she is on this team,” Polinsky said. “She gets rebounds, she misses shots sometimes but that doesn’t matter. Her role is to get rebounds, block shots and play against their best player, and I thought she did a fantastic job.”

With states two weeks away, the Lions have a chance to celebrate the win and also to take a breath, Polinsky said. Elizondo knows how high the level of competition will be in the state tournament.

“I’m excited, these next two weeks are gonna be fun and we’re gonna have to really get it together for states,” Elizondo said, “because I know those competitions are gonna be really difficult, cause it’s the best teams from all over.”

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By Quarter

Renaissance Academy: 2 | 12 | 7 | 6 || 27

New Hope-Solebury: 15 | 8 | 8 | 18 || 49

Scoring

Renaissance Academy: Alyssa Burkholder 4, Kasira Barber 6, Dallis Stewart 4, Saydi Daye 8, Aniyah Jones 5

New Hope-Solebury: Nina Meixler 2, Isabella Elizondo 24, Emily Wilson 12, Elena Shire 1, Ella Dudick 8, Isha Mukherjee 2.