Season Preview: Talented Girls Lax Team Begins Season On Thursday

Led by seniors Emerson Pekarcik and Bailey Lower, the Nantucket girls lacrosse team is hoping Thursday’s road matchup against Plymouth North is the beginning of a long, promising season on the backs of their two Div. 1 commits as well as depth scattered up and down the lineup.

Whaler head coach Jami Lower said in order for her team to have the success they’re capable of, they will need to continue putting in the work while learning how to play with one another and maximize their teammates capabilities.

"It's always tricky. You have to still put in the work. You can't just walk in and expect it,” Jami Lower said. “You're going to have to put the work in. That's what we're learning. We also have had teams like Norwell and Cohasset move down so there are a lot of really good teams in Div. 4 like Manchester Essex, Weston, and Ipswich is up and coming as well.”

Lower, a Vanderbilt commit and Pekarcik, a High Point commit, have both had stellar varsity lacrosse careers at Nantucket High School to date. Lower currently has 257 career goals and 148 assists (405 points) in 56 games while Pekarcik has 193 goals and 64 assists (257 points) in 56 games. They are complimented by senior attacker Cydney Mosscrop, who has also had a stellar career of her own accumulating 174 goals and 62 assists (236 points) in 56 career games.

Those three players will be the ones most often lighting up the scoreboard, but there are many others who have important roles to play in the overall operation.

Two players Lower said have impressed through a pair of scrimmages and in practice so far are juniors Suz Peraner and Mayson Lower. Both were key contributors last season and Jami Lower believes they are ready to take another step in their development.

“Mayson has really been working hard on taking the draw and driving the net, so I think she's definitely ready to go,” Jami Lower said. “Suz hustled in our scrimmage on Friday, which was really good to see. She really worked hard. I think broadening our depth is kind of what we really need to do. We can't focus on two to three players. We need to focus on building our depth and getting everybody starting to work a little bit more cohesively and collaboratively.”

Freshman Sophia Sullivan is also expected to play an important role as an attacker.

“Sophia has always played defense but will be on offense this year,” Lower said. “She came to tryouts and Paul (Cronin, assistant head coach) looked at me and he's like 'Yep, she's going to play attack.' She's got a great stick. She's young, but she has that great stick. I think she’s going to be a strong asset on offense as well."

On defense, Lower is confident in the group. It includes sophomore Alex Wisentaner, who missed all of last season with a torn ACL but will be available to play limited minutes right away, as well as freshman Madden Myers, who is a three-sport athlete who has impressed so far in the preseason.

“Madden is really strong on defense, and she is so eager to learn too so it’s really helpful,” Lower said. “We have a pretty good group on defense. I think it is just a matter of adapting to some rule changes, relearning body positioning, and then just having some confidence. We have some good people on the bench defensively that just need to brush up on their stick skills and they'll jump right in. So high hopes on defense and just working together.”

In net, senior Claire Misurelli will be between the pipes for her second season as the team’s starting goalie. Misurelli played goalie for the first-time last year and Lower said she has been impressive early on this spring.

“Claire made this big stride,” Lower said. “I hope it continues. She's such an athletic kid and having an athletic goalie is what you want. On our scrimmage day (last week), we played NDA which is like the top Div. 2 team and state champion for how many years running? I mean it's a phenomenal team. Then we played Cohasset, and she had some really great athletic saves, she's coming out of net and taking her time on clears, and really working. She's putting in the effort. I have high hopes for her for sure.”

The Whalers road matchup with Plymouth North on Thursday will begin at 3:30 p.m. You can view the full Whaler girls lacrosse schedule by clicking here.