Three Mattituck High School senior athletes with aspirations of pursuing their favorite sports in college had their hopes confirmed last Wednesday.

Lacrosse stars Shane Psaltis and Dylan Cifarelli and soccer standout Casey Szczotka signed letters of intent to attend their respective schools in 2025.

Psaltis will attend the University of Alabama-Huntsville and Cifarelli will go to Wingate University in North Carolina. Szczotka will take classes at Mercy University in Westchester County.

The trio, who wore sweatshirts from their college choices, made it official on what was the final Letter of Intent Day. The NCAA is doing away with that process in the future.

So many factors figure into a student’s decision. Szczotka, who wants to be a museum director, liked what she saw at Mercy, in Dobbs Ferry.

“I like the distance from here,” she said after the ceremony outside the gymnasium in front of the trophy case. “I can easily get there. But it’s also far enough away where I can kind of distance myself from Mattituck and just create my own personal image, apart from what people already know about me here.”

Szczotka, whose twin brother, Sean, was a star on the Mattituck boys team, ended her four-year career with 38 goals and 45 assists. She was a vital factor in Mattituck/Southold/Greenport qualifying for the Suffolk County playoffs for the first time since 2019.

Assistant coach Joe Tardif felt there were big things ahead for Szczotka. He was impressed with her “overall work, work ethic, determination, just will to win every game you went to.”

“You saw Casey all over the field,” he continued. “Sometimes you didn’t even know what position she was playing, because she was up, she was back. We had a lot of girls who aren’t necessarily soccer players, who she got to buy in. That was the connecting piece between the coaches and the team. She did an exceptional job in every aspect of leadership, to playing, to just being an exceptional athlete.”

Szczotka will play for on the Tuckers girls basketball team, which started preseason training on Monday.

Cifarelli and Psaltis compete on the Mattituck/Greenport/ Southold boys lacrosse team, which captured the 2023 county Class D crown and reached the 2024 final.

Psaltis said that he visited Huntsville and “immediately fell in love with the campus. The coach was great. Everything was just amazing.”

On the academic end, the school has an accredited business program, which is perfect for Psaltis, who said he will major in finance.

The same applies to Cifarelli at Wingate, located near Charlotte, N.C. He plans to study exercise science at the school and pursue a career in physical therapy.

“The academic side was good for me,” he said.“I wanted somewhere down South to be a little bit warmer, and I wanted a smaller school. Wingate is about 3,000 students, so that’s perfect for me. The head coach of Wingate coached my coach for varsity here in college, so I thought that was pretty cool. So I’m going to have that connection. It’s a top 10 D-2 school. It’s competitive, which I wanted.” Assistant lacrosse coach Jeff Hauser had little doubt that both players would do big things in college and beyond.

“Their drive and their work ethic really prove that they can go out and do whatever they want,” he said. “I’m just excited for both of them going on to play in college. Not a lot of people get to do that. It’s a privilege. They’re working hard for their academics and working for their athletics.”

One thing is for certain: Both players would like to return to the Class D final. The Tuckers dropped an 11-3 decision to Babylon in the championship game last spring. “I guess there definitely is some unfinished business,” Psaltis said.

“I do hope that it is Babylon, because I would feel pretty good to beat them this year,” Cifarelli said.

Mattituck athletic director Gregg Wormuth lauded the athletes and their parents, especially for the sacrifices they made.

“Kudos to you … for having done that and giving your child the opportunity to be where they are right now,” he said. “As a role model, I think each and every one of you has done a great job of that, not just as an athlete, but as a member of our school district and community, and really showing what the future could look like if you really put in your time.”