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After four years under coach Jazz Perazic, the Elizabeth Seton High School girls' basketball team finally reached glory last March, winning the Washington Catholic Athletic Conference title.

While it would be easy to think Perazic's focus this summer is on winning another WCAC title, her goals have more to do with individual achievements.

"My goal was obviously to try to raise the level of all of my players, but really, what the summer is for them is to get scholarship offers," Perazic said Monday afternoon at the Best of Maryland tournament at Damascus High School, a 20-team invitational that includes squads from Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Ohio and Colorado. "That was my goal, to get them into college. I feel that just about anybody on the team can play either [NCAA] Division I, II or III."

Roadrunners' senior forward Melanie Royster verbally committed to Virginia Commonwealth University during this week's Best of Maryland tournament, which ended Wednesday after The Gazette went to press. Senior guard Alyssa Albanese has received an offer to play at Holy Family University (Penn.) and is still awaiting offers from other programs.

The Roadrunners took the same summer approach as several other top high school girls' basketball programs across the county. Many teams are split up during the summer, as players focus on playing with their AAU club teams at exposure tournaments across the nation rather than in local summer leagues.

Royster and Albanese played for the Lady Terps AAU team, which participated in tournaments in Tennessee and at Penn State University. Albanese said all of the work and travel this summer has been well worth it.

"It's been a really good summer," Albanese said. "We got a lot of exposure. I wanted to get faster this summer and work on my [ball-handling]. I also wanted to work on my vertical [jump]."

Royster said that while the work on the court proved challenging, the process of sorting through college opportunities comes with its own rigors.

"This summer I just wanted to have fun and not worry so much," Royster said. "Talking with so many coaches, that was really hard and difficult. I had to think about pretty much what I wanted in a school and making sure I made the right decision. All of that was going through my mind."

Meanwhile, the Roadrunners will have some key components to replace. 2010 Gazette-Star Player of the Year Tyaunna Marshall (Georgia Tech) and Gazette-Star second-team selection Alexis Martin (Millersville University in Pennsylvania) graduated in May.

The Roadrunners also suffered a setback when junior Jasmine Missouri, who Perazic said is among the best players in the county, decided to transfer. Perazic said Missouri has yet to determine which school she will attend. The Roadrunners also suffered a loss in April when junior guard Jordan Cager went down with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Perazic said Cager has been recovering from the injury all summer. Meanwhile, players like sophomore forward Sovanna Murphy and sophomore guard Janelle Hubbard will be called upon to make major contributions to the Roadrunners' WCAC title defense.

"We just took all of our young players from junior varsity and players who didn't get a lot of [playing] time last year to several team camps, where we struggled on the floor a little bit, but still made a lot of progress," Perazic said.

Royster said she has few worries.

"I already know that this team that we have now is probably more athletic than what we were last year," Royster said. "It's just that they're young, so they're learning the game more. But they're a really good group of players. Last year, we had really good team chemistry and that's what probably made us so successful."

"Even though they're young and small, I feel really confident," Albanese said. "[The younger players] listen, they work hard. It's going to be a good year. I feel really confident we can defend our title."

E-mail Terron Hampton at

thampton@gazette.net.