Week: January 18th-22nd

Sport: Basketball

Grade: Senior

Position: Center

The lowdown: Criscuolo has not seen much valuable playing time until this year. At the beginning of the season, coach Jeff Jasper said she was “the most improved player in the whole program.” Her best performances have been in key situations for the Indians. Dropping 17 points in the first game of the season, Criscuolo was off to a hot start. Her marquee game was on January 12 helping the team to topple Teaneck and snap its six year winning streak against the Indians in a matchup where PV was the underdog. Criscuolo dropped 17 points, adding eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals to her statline. Her performance was impressive enough to jump the young Indians team 6 spots to the No. 2 in The Record’s “Top 25” this week. 

Coach’s comment: “Gina falls into my person of the week every week. Even though she had a great week athletically, she also has shown great leadership this week. I love her humanity. She is very compassionate, caring and leads in such a low-key and positive way. I think she has a great week all the time. She is a very good athlete all-around, but she has really made it her business to take herself to perform at the level she is performing at. She has taken good athletic ability and developed the skill set to go along with it. She also has a great personality that makes her charismatic, but never threatening, she is a non-judgmental positive force.”

What she loves most about basketball: “I definitely love the team part of it, especially this past season we have become really close. Sometimes the practices will be hard the game will be stressful, but it is really amazing to have such a good team to fall back on.”

Who she looks up to: “I don’t really look up to one single person, I look up to anyone who is willing to put themselves before others and dedicate themselves to something they are passionate about.”

Four people she’d invite to a dinner party: Jonah Hill (Actor), Jimmy Fallon (Comedian), Beyonce (Singer), Justin Timberlake (Singer)

Future plans: “I want to go to James Madison University and study nursing.”