Girls Lax Begins New Era, Final Season Of Jami Lower's Coaching Career

For the first time in five years, the Whaler girls lacrosse team is entering the spring season without Bailey Lower and Emerson Pekarcik on their roster. With the duo that dominated throughout the course of their high school careers now playing at the Div. 1 level in college at Vanderbilt University and High Point University respectively, Nantucket is set to begin a new era of their lacrosse program in what will also be the final year of head coach Jami Lower’s coaching career as she plans to step down from the position following this season.

"I think it's going to be a completely different team than we've had in years past," Lower said. "We have a couple of tried-and-true veterans coming back obviously with (seniors) Mayson (Lower), Maddie (Lombardi), Suz (Peraner), and (juniors) Myah (Johnson) and Dylan (Damian), but everyone else is pretty much new. There's definitely a lot of enthusiasm. I think they know that it's going to be a different year, but I think they're really embracing it.”

The Whalers will also need to replace attacker Cydney Mosscrop, who rounded out Nantucket’s “Big Three” on offense the past four years. But the biggest question mark on the team may be their goaltending following the graduation of Claire Misurelli last June after she stepped up to play two seasons in net at a high level. Lower said sophomore Ella Douglas and senior Gianna Quinn will be competing for that starting spot.

“Ella has played a lot of seasons through youth lacrosse and we're working with her to kind of find the speed of the game and how different it is,” Lower said. “Then Gianna Quinn wants to give it a try. So, we'll kind of see.”

The strength of this Whaler team should be their defense with Lombardi, senior Sam Zadroga, and Johnson all returning. They also expect sophomores Sophia Sullivan and Claire Oberly to step in and contribute after strong junior varsity seasons last year.

"Our defense was really awesome in our Sandwich scrimmage (last week),” Lower said. “They worked really hard to support that goaltender position because it's not an easy position and it's fast.”

In years past, Mayson Lower has been a key facilitator helping spring her sister and Pekarcik up field to work their magic. Now, Lower will need to take on a larger role when it comes to scoring goals alongside Peraner. Damian, as well as Carley Ray and Grace Hanlon, also figure to get plenty of work in the midfield and as attackers.

Nantucket’s first game of the season is scheduled for Friday, March 28^th on the road against St. John Paul II at 4 p.m. You can view the girls lacrosse schedule here.