Sports
By Don Lyons - April 6, 2006
Softball team off to a good start
The MVRHS softball season started on a high note at Carver, Friday, with a dramatic come-from-behind 4-2 win.
Scoreless until the final seventh inning, the Islanders set the table, putting runners on second and third with two outs and Emily Sobel stepping to the plate. Her seeing-eye bouncer to right tied the score and Emily took second on the throw to the plate.
Kelly Silvia followed with a line drive that was too hot to handle for the Carver shortstop and while she was trying to find the handle, Sobel was waved home.
Despite battling the flu, Brielle Leonard and Kathryn DeBettencourt played key rolls in the win. Brielle went the distance on the mound. Kathryn collected three hits, including two doubles.
The very next day the team was off-Island again for a 2-day, 6-game weekend at the Mashpee Invitational. The first opponent was Bourne and the ball was handed to JV pitcher Jackie Panek. Jackie held the Canalmen to two runs and fanned eight while the Vineyard exploded for nine runs.
The next game was with Grafton, a strong team from the Worcester area, which jumped to an early lead and never looked back: Grafton 11, MV 3.
The battery of Leonard and Silvia, which sat out the Grafton game, returned to the lineup and keyed the M.V. 11-0 shutout win. Julie Perry drove in two in her only at bat.
Sunday morning the Islanders bowed to Old Rochester, 9-3. Biggest blow for the Vineyard was Kathryn DeBettencourt's two-run bomb to left.
Sunday afternoon the Vineyard bested Nantucket, 7-5, and tied North Andover, 6-6.
All in all, it was an exhausting but pleasing start to a season that promises more than its share of thrills.
The girls are at Apponequet, Tuesday, Apr. 11, and Fairhaven, Thursday. Their first home game is April 17 versus Old Rochester.
O.B. and V.H. in volleyball finals.
On Monday, Oak Bluffs took on Edgartown, the leaders of the Interscholastic volleyball league, at Edgartown and came away with a win and a ticket to the championship finals versus Tisbury which squeezed by West Tisbury in an overtime tie-breaker at Vineyard Haven, also Monday.
The O.B. Blazers (1-5) had just one win to their credit, a mirror image of Edgartown (5-1) which had lost just one.
But O.B. was not cowed by the record book and workmanlike bent to the task of winning the first, third and fourth games.
At Vineyard Haven. Tisbury and West Tisbury, teams with the same 3-3 season record, went head to head, as evenly matched as their identical records indicated.
In game one, the up-Island Hawks earned a six-point lead after seven exchanges, but with Mark Nickowal serving, the Tigers pulled ahead by three and Madeline Penicaud stepped to the line to finish it off, 25-19.
The second game was marked by a number of long volleys, a couple crossing the net 20 or more times. The Hawks earned a 21-16 advantage and finished, with Griffin Gardner serving, 25-18
The third game went to the host Tigers, 25-21, despite some excellent work by Jake "the Snake" Ferry for WesTiz.
West Tisbury came crashing back to tie the series at two games apiece. The Hawks posted 14 points in a row early with Michael Kendall at the service line and never looked back. Final score: 25-9.
The new volleyball rules call for a fifth-game tie-breaker of 15 points.
West Tisbury broke on top and after five services held a 12-6 lead. But Tisbury responded, tied the game at 14, then added two more to claim the game and the match.
The interscholastic finals were played yesterday, Tisbury vs. Oak Bluffs, at O.B.
Ladies LaX
The MVRHS girls lacrosse team promises to be a fan's delight. There are eight returning players from the team that finished second to Dartmouth in the Maritime League last year. Katie Campbell, Taylor MacDonald, and Jen Murphy are co-captains.
The team's ten seniors include the captains, Katie Keppeler, Emily Lindsay, Naomi Rayfield, Grace Murphy, Katherine Clark, and Breanna McCormick.
Freshman Zoe Fisher will start in goal, Coach Betsy Dripps told The Times.
The team scrimmaged with Derryfield of Manchester, N.H., Friday and the visitors from the Granite State proved to be a worthy challenge for the Islanders. Scores were not kept but the action was clearly intense.
Coach Betsy Dripps's squad plays its season opener today, here, with Dartmouth and follows that with Nauset also here, Saturday, at 12:30. This weekend 40 girls from St. Helen's and St. Katherine's school, ranked the top girls lacrosse team in England, are guests of the Vineyarders and will play the varsity on Sunday at 3 pm.
Coach Betsy Dripps is ably assisted by Kim D'Arcy. Donna Nagle is the JV coach.
