Whaler Sports Roundup May 24 & 25, 2023

In this Whaler Sports Roundup, which includes games from Wednesday, May 24 and Thursday, May 25, the girls tennis team stayed red hot and ended their regular season with a fifth consecutive win. Now all eyes shift to the postseason. The boys tennis team fought hard but lost to Martha's Vineyard, the baseball team was unable to continue their strong start into the second half of their game against Fairhaven, and the softball team nearly beat Nauset after losing to them earlier in the season 14-0.

Girls Tennis Finishes Regular Season On Five Game Win Streak Following Win Over Barnstable

Just past the midway point of the season, a young Whaler girls tennis team appeared to be one year away from contending for a state tournament berth after managing just three wins in their first 13 matches.

But after their 3-10 start, the Whalers began to find their rhythm. Joan Harris, Lauren Cutone, and Hannah Gerardi predominantly held a status as doubles players up until this year. As the season has progressed, so have Nantucket’s top players. The Whalers rode those players to four straight wins entering Wednesday afternoon against Barnstable, and they capped off their regular season with a fifth straight win after beating the Red Hawks 4-1.

Harris won her match in straight sets 6-1, 6-0. Harris, who has held the Whaler’s top singles player for most of this season, said in her postgame match report that while she played well, she believes that she needs to improve her consistency.

Cutone lost her first set 4-6 but bounced back to win the next two sets 6-1, 6-0 to secure the victory. The second singles player said following the game that the first set didn’t go well because she was making a lot of errors but was happy with the fact that she was able to pull herself together for the rest of the match.

In the last two sets, Cutone said that her shot placement and change of speed was very important because her opponent didn’t like to play net.

Gerardi won her match as the third singles player, beating her opponent 6-0, 6-1 in straight sets. Gerardi said throughout the match she was focused on her shot placement and making sure to switch up where each shot was going. She said she also worked on her serve returns and made sure to add spin and speed when returning back to her opponent.

Chloe Marrero and Julia Swietlik were the doubles team to come away with a win, beating their opponent 6-2, 6-1 in straight sets. Swietlik, a senior, said she was very happy with how her final home match went. She said she felt that both Chloe and herself played very well.

“I was really proud of my backcourt hits and see that I could definitely work on being aggressive at my volleys,” she said. “Chloe had really good serves and hard volleys. I think combined we made a huge effort into giving our all into the match.”

Lydia Johnson and Shadia Sabrah lost their match, but the seniors said they enjoyed playing with one another in their final match on the island.

Nantucket, playing their best tennis of the season, now eagerly awaits the release of the state tournament brackets next week. Check back in with the Nantucket Current for updates as they become available.

Boys Tennis Finishes 8-6 Following Loss To Martha’s Vineyard

Boys Tennis hosted Martha’s Vineyard today. The Whalers lost 5-0 to Div. 3’s top seed but are almost certainly going to be the #5 seed in the Div. 4 state tournament when brackets are revealed. While they were swept, they didn’t make it easy on the Vineyarders and made them earn every set. They appear to be poised for a long playoff run after a strong 8-6 season.

Check back with Current Sports for updates as brackets are released next week.

Baseball Loses To Fairhaven In Final Home Game

The baseball team lost 11-1 on their senior day to Fairhaven. Gillis Cocker pitched well through three innings. But the Whaler’s offense remained stagnant. A six-run fourth inning for Fairhaven, which was spearheaded by some errors and walks, ultimately doomed the Whalers after a 0-0 start through three innings.

The Whaler’s lone run came in the bottom of the fifth inning following an RBI single by Eddie Chacon, which drove in Cocker.

With two games remaining, head coach Jack Pearson said his team needs to find some offense if they want any chance of competing with O’Bryant on Friday and Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday.

Softball Loses To Nauset 12-10

The Whaler softball nearly came away with a victory against the Nauset Warriors on Wednesday but came up just short in a 12-10 defeat.

Nantucket did nearly all of their damage in one inning. They scored eight of their 10 runs in the third inning to take a 10-6 lead. All but one Whaler batter in the lineup came around to score in the inning.

But Nauset slowly pecked away at the four-run deficit. They scored one run in the fourth inning, two runs in the fifth inning, and one run in the sixth inning to take a 10-8 lead into the bottom half of the sixth.

After the Whalers went down one-two-three in the sixth, the Warriors struck for two more runs in the top half of the seventh to take a 12-8 lead.

The Whalers were down to their final three outs, but they made the game very interesting. For the first time since their eight-run inning, Nantucket found a way to score two more runs after beginning the bottom half of the seventh with back-to-back walks. Ultimately, the Warriors found a way to end the game on a double play as Nantucket got a little too greedy on the base paths.

Their final game of the season for the Whalers will be Saturday, May 27 at 11 a.m. in a home matchup against Martha’s Vineyard.

Looking ahead, here are the scheduled games between now and Monday's Whaler Sports Roundup.

Friday, May 26 Schedule:

No Games.

Saturday, May 27 Schedule:

Girls Lacrosse will host the Martha's Vineyard Vineyarders at 11 a.m.

Softball will host the Vineyard at 11 a.m.

Boys Lacrosse will be on the road playing the Vineyard at 12:30 p.m.

Baseball will be on the road playing the Vineyard at 12:45 p.m.

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