Sports Roundup: Girls Lax, Girls Tennis Celebrate Seniors
David Creed •
This sports roundup includes updates on the girls lacrosse and the girls tennis teams after their senior day celebrations over the weekend, the baseball team after a three-win weekend, the boys lacrosse team after another blowout win, the softball team after picking up two more wins, and the boys tennis team.
Girls Lacrosse Stays Perfect, Honor Seniors With Win
The regular season is quickly reaching its end for the Nantucket girls lacrosse team, and it has been one to remember through 16 games. As Nantucket looks to remain perfect after improving their record to 16-0 on Friday following a 16-1 win over Dennis-Yarmouth at home, the team also took time to honor its six seniors who have played a significant role in the team’s success not just this year, but in years past.
Bailey Lower, Emerson Pekarcik, Claire Misurelli, Cydney Mosscrop, Brooke Damian, and Evy Stahl were all honored after the game by their team – with head coach Jami Lower offering some sentimental thoughts on each of the players, including her daughter Bailey.
"They were the ones that started with me. Lacrosse was such an important part of my life and when I was asked to coach I kind of envisioned my girl's grades playing the sport," Lower said. "They have been with me since the beginning. I started a little earlier than they did, but it's just going to be tough to see them go. Like I said in my speech, they all have a role and they're all together when they come together. It's an incredible group. It's going to be hard. "We wouldn't be where we are without the six of them. They started working when they were in fifth grade and they haven't let up. They all love it and I think it shows.”
The Whalers led 11-0 after one quarter – giving Lower a chance to play everyone on the team. The Whalers also learned Friday morning that they were the new owners of Div. 4’s top spot in the state rankings – which had spirits high.
Every senior aside from Misurelli, who plays goalie, scored in the game. Pekarcik led the team with six goals. Bailey Lower, Mayson Lower, and Alex Wisentaner scored two goals each. Mosscrop, Stahl, Damian, and Grace Hanlon each scored one goal.
“It was fun to set up Brooke (with a goal)," Lower said. "Everybody tried some different things today and hopefully they just had fun. It's been a grind of a season having so many games, and then to have one like today can kind of remind them that's why we do it."
Nantucket will attempt to improve their record to 17-0 when they host Falmouth High School on Tuesday, May 21 at 4 p.m.
Girls Tennis Loses To Monomoy On Senior Day
While the Whaler girls tennis team lost their senior day matchup against the Monomoy Sharks 4-1 on Friday, head coach Luke Thornewill carried out his annual senior day ceremony to honor his senior players.
Every year, Thornewill gives a speech where he speaks about each player. After the speech is completed, he then plays the National Anthem on his trumpet with assistant head coach Mark Gerardi holding the American Flag up high. The seniors honored were Joan Harris, Hannah Gerardi, Chloe Marrero, and Lauren Cutone.
The final results from the match were as followed:
First Single: Joan Harris lost her match 2-1 in a tiebreaker. She dropped the first set 4-6 before winning the second set 7-5. She then went onto lose the 10-point tiebreaker.
Second Single: Lily Chibnik won her match in a tiebreaker. She won the first set 6-3 before dropping the second set 5-7. She won the 10-point tiebreaker 10-5.
Third Single: Lauren Cutone lost her match in straight sets 0-6, 2-6.
First Doubles: Hannah Gerardi and Chloe Marrero lost their match in straight sets 3-6, 4-6.
Second Doubles: Sara Dussault and Sutton LeBrecht lost their match in straight sets 4-6, 3-6.
Nantucket is now 7-6 this season and their next match is scheduled for Tuesday, May 21 on the road against the Sturgis West Navigators at 4 p.m.
Baseball Earns Three Blowout Victories Over Weekend
The Whaler baseball team entered this past weekend with a record of 2-12 as they navigate through a season with a young roster filled with freshmen and sophomore ballplayers. But over the weekend, the Whalers couldn’t stop winning and played some of their best baseball all season long - earning three victories.
It began with an 11-2 win over Rising Tide on the road Friday afternoon – followed by two wins in a doubleheader at home against Atlantis Charter School on Saturday. Nantucket won game one 17-2 and won game two 13-2.
The success stemmed from the quality of pitching – in particularly in the first two wins. Freshman Keegan Bedell gave the Whalers six strong innings of work on Friday against Rising Tide – striking out six batters. In game one of the Saturday doubleheader, senior captain Shea Dwyer pitched all four innings and struck out seven batters. In game two, led by Hansen Dalton, the Whalers only allowed two runs.
"We hit the ball and we put the pressure on Rising Tide," head coach Jack Pearson said. "Same with (Saturday). (Atlantis Charter) was a little light in numbers. I think a couple of their guys couldn't come, but we can only play the team that's in front of us and we had a bunch of hits, a bunch of guys aggressive on the bases, and we didn't make mistakes. We just played ball.”
Some notable performances included sophomore Henry Tejada, who went 2 for 2 against Rising Tide and reached two more times on errors. In game one, Dwyer also went 2 for 2 and reached base two more times after being walked and hit by a pitch. Freshman Evan Cranston also had a pair of hits – including a double in game one.
Freshman catcher Eli MacIver was given the option to sit out game two but denied the chance at some rest according to Pearson. MacIver has been steady all year behind the plate and had another excellent showing in all three Whaler wins over the weekend.
Nantucket is now 5-12 this season and they will try to earn their fourth straight win on Monday, May 20 when they travel to Dennis-Yarmouth to face the Dolphins at 3:30 p.m.
Boys Lacrosse Wins 12th Straight Game
Another game, another win for the Whaler boys lacrosse team. They continue to cruise through the regular season and their most recent victory came against Div. 1 Shrewsbury at home 15-4 on Saturday.
The Whalers only led 4-3 through one quarter but exploded for 11 goals the rest of the way while shutting out Shrewsbury until they scored a garbage time goal in the fourth quarter. They are now 14-1 this season and appear to be on their way to clinching the top seed in the Div. 4 state tournament.
"The biggest thing I saw (Saturday) was the whole team was a team,” Whaler head coach Sam Aloisi said. “Everybody played together. It's awesome.”
Nantucket continues to dominate defensively despite being without senior captain and long pole Griffin Starr and junior defensive midfielder Owen Sullivan.
“I mean without those guys, who are two starters right, those first goals, two were on missed assignments and one was on a rebound," Aloisi said. "Once that got addressed, that was it. The defense did great."
Sophomore midfielder Arann Hanlon was the star of the day again offensively – leading the team with four goals, all of which came in the first half.
"He's really hard to stop because he can go left or right, he can dodge, he can back (his defender) down, he can roll,” Aloisi said. “He can do a lot of things. He's hard to defend one on one.”
The other goal scorers included sophomore Nolen Mosscrop with three goals, seniors Cole Chambers, Colby O’Keefe, and Paddy Carroll with two goals, and seniors Michael Culkins and Ryan Davis with one goal each.
Nantucket will try to improve to 15-1 when they host Old Rochester Regional High School on Thursday, May 23 at 4 p.m.
Softball Wins Two Games At Home
The Nantucket softball team won two more games over the weekend – improving their win streak to six games and overall record to 8-5.
The Whalers beat Rising Tide 17-10 on Friday after losing to them 19-17 on May 1. Then on Saturday, they beat Atlantis Charter School 20-17 after losing to them 20-8 on the road April 27.
“I just think that we are more comfortable with hitting the second half of the season,” head coach Grace-Anne Tornovish said. “Batting has gotten better and we are making plays.”
Nantucket will try to improve to 11-5 when they play two more games on Monday, May 20 on the road against Nauset. The first game will begin at 3:15 p.m. and is actually a resumption of the suspended game from Nantucket’s home opener against Nauset, which they are currently losing 12-7 in the fifth inning.
After that game is completed, the Whalers will play their regularly scheduled road matchup with Nauset at 4 p.m.
Boys Tennis Loses On The Road
The boys tennis team lost their fifth match in their last six games on Friday against the Barnstable Red Hawks 3-2 and are now 6-8 this season. They will try to get back in the win column on Monday, May 20 when they travel to Monomoy to face the Sharks at 4 p.m.
SCHEDULE:
Monday, May 20:
The softball team will complete a suspended game against the Nauset Warriors at 3:15 p.m. before facing Nauset on the road in their regularly scheduled 4 p.m. game.
The baseball team will be on the road facing Dennis-Yarmouth at 4 p.m.
The boys tennis team will be on the road facing Monomoy at 4 p.m.
Tuesday, May 21:
The girls tennis team will be on the road facing Dennis-Yarmouth at 3:30 p.m.
The girls lacrosse team will be at home facing Falmouth at 4 p.m.
The sailing team will be at home for a regatta against Nauset at 4 p.m.
For more coverage of all the Nantucket spring sports teams, follow us on Instagram, Facebook, or X (Twitter). You can follow photographer Chris Tran by clicking here. You can view the MIAA power rankings here.