Sportsweek: Winter Sports Begin
The Fall transition is complete and our winter athletes and teams are fully immersed with their respective seasons. Pre-season practices and tryouts are complete, rosters set, and several of our teams are already up and running!
Congratulations to all our Fall teams, especially to those programs who qualified and participated in the NEPSAC Championships, including the boys’ and girls’ soccer teams as well as the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams.
Kevin Zifcak’s Girls Hockey team opened defense of their DII Championship year with two impressive wins out of the gate, racing past the Tilton School on the road (5-1) and then easing past Portsmouth Abbey (3-0) in the 1st ever regular season hockey game for the girls at the Worcester Ice Center. Senior Mickey Sindoris ’18 led the scoring parade with 2 goals and an assist.
Bob Lavin’s Boys Hockey team also has started their campaign in impressive fashion with two home wins. Middlesex School provided the opposition on Wednesday and the hometown team opened up with a solid 3-2 victory. It was the 1st regular season contest for a Hilltopper hockey team at the new Worcester Ice Center. Senior Nathan Pickett ’18 was outstanding in net and Mitch Pelletier ’18 rattled home 2 goals as the Hilltoppers upended a strong Holderness club by a 4-1 count on Saturday evening.
Varsity Girls Basketball team under coach Sherry Levin emerged with a 49-46 road win over a highly touted Rivers School team on Wednesday afternoon in Weston. Junior guard Lauren Power scored a career high 22 points in pacing the Hilltopper attack and junior center Aliyah Boston ’19 dominated the interior with a 16-point, 15-rebound effort. The girls will open their home slate on Wednesday afternoon hosting the St. George’s School at 3:30 pm.
The Varsity Boys Basketball team grabbed an important Class AA win as they opened their ’18 campaign with a wire-to-wire win over Brimmer & May on Wednesday in front of an enthusiastic Hilltopper crowd. The hosts shot the lights out in the 1st half, raced off to a 17-point halftime lead, then withstood a 2nd half rally to secure the win. Sophomore guard Quest Harris ’20 was high man for WA! A step up in Class at the St. Andrew’s Showcase event (Barrington, RI) saw the Hilltoppers drop games to Lee Academy (56-52) and South Kent School (80-63). Sophomore forward Justin Martindale tossed in 22 points in Sunday’s contest.
On the sub-varsity level all three Hilltopper squads fell on Saturday afternoon. Despite the setback all three programs seem poised to improve over last season’s showing!
Varsity Wrestling hosted Lawrence Academy and the Governor’s School in a tri-meet here on Saturday afternoon. Although down in numbers, the quality of performance by the squad was solid and included multiple wins by Aidan Ormsby ’19 and Mike Berberian ’21. The team lost both matches, 24-9 to Governor’s and 25-24 (tiebreaker) to Lawrence Academy.