May 3, 2013 - Southingtonlibrary.org

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The Step Saver/ The Observer
Friday, May 3, 2013
Our Athletes
On the
brink
Girls need 1
win to clinch
postseason
By JOHN GORALSKI
SPORTS WRITER
Nobody went three sets.
Three positions swept their
opponents, and another
came close. On Monday,
April 22, the Lady Knight tennis
team came one step closer
to a tournament berth
with their eighth win in as
many chances.
Once again, the sophomores
swept an upperclassman
singles lineup. This
time, the doubles tandems
rallied to win all but one possible
point.
With a 7-0 win over
Fermi the Lady Knights
improved to 8-0.
Girls Tennis
“They did it again, and it
was on the road in a long trip
this time,” said Lady Knight
tennis coach Robin
Thompson. “I find that I just
keep repeating myself, but
the girls just keep competing.
If they give me everything
they’ve got ever day,
what more can I ask for?”
Thompson cautions
that things may be about to
change for her young team,
and she hopes that the fast
start has prepared them for
the blistering May schedule.
This upcoming week, the
Knights will open their conference
schedule needing
just one victory for a tournament
berth, and Thompson
hopes that her young team
understands the challenges
that lie ahead.
“I worry that the 8-0
record might be a false sense
of security,” said Thompson.
“I’ve been talking about it for
a few weeks now. Come the
first few weeks of May, I
don't want anybody to be
surprised. Some of our girls
are going to start finding
themselves in some very difficult
situations, and our
maturity will decide how
well we work through that.”
In the meantime, the
Knights keep winning.
Caroline Rodman, Alex
Barmore, Cassidy Race, and
rianna Susco have settled
into the singles lineup, and
they swept their Fermi counterparts,
4-0, despite a
Falcon lineup that boasts a
senior and two juniors.
JOHN GORALSKI
Cassidy Race returns a ball during a recent singles
match. The young Knights are on the brink
of clinching a postseason berth.
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April 22
Southington 7
Fermi 0
Southington’s young
players are faring just as well
in doubles with Angela
Balaoing-Catie Wormer winning
in straight sets at No. 1
doubles and Taylor Grucza-
Liz costello and Bailey
Potter-Emily Sheehan rallying
for 6-0, 6-0 victories.
Thompson said that the
new challenge will be handling
adversity against deeper,
more experienced teams
in the conference.
“If the kids play well and
are mentally into it, I think
we can compete,” she said. “I
think we've already surprised
a lot of teams. We lost
half our roster, and our kids
are competing. Obviously,
there are going to be some
games that are going to be
tough. We may have some
okay losses. We might have
some that shouldn't happen.
We’re just going to try to
learn from them. This is still
a learning curve for a lot of
our girls. Mental focus and
hanging in for the fight is so
important.”
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Volleyball hangs on
By JOHN GORALSKI
SPORTS WRITER
For two games, it looked
like the Blue Knight volleyball
team was in control, but
Newington had other plans.
On Wednesday, April 24,
Southington cruised to a 2-0
lead in the best of five series
when... all of a sudden...the
bottom dropped out.
Volleyball
“We went in there strong
with our no-bubbles mentality.
We went point for point
early in game one but took a
strong lead late in the game.
In game two, we had another
great score,” said Blue Knight
coach Lou Gianacopolos.
“We had momentum, but all
of a sudden we let them up
for air.”
After winning game one
with three goals. Alexander
Jamele, Tom Gallagher, and
Morrissey scored two goals
apiece, and Nick Caize, Jared
DeFeo, and Bryan Davis
scored solo goals.
Cop (2), Gallagher,
Florian, and Joe Gambardella
collected assists. Mahon and
Dan Saucier combined for 10
saves to get the win.
On Friday, the Knights
raised the bar again with a 9-
3 road win against NFA.
“Today was probably the
most excited that I’ve seen
the kids in a while,” said
Chase. “I think it was a little
payback for them beating us
last year. It was an all-around
good effort. Everyone had a
part in the game whether it
was on the sidelines or on the
by nine points and game two
by 11, momentum flipped
like a switch. Newington rallied
for a 25-16 victory in
game three and held on for a
two-point win to force a fifth
game.
Southington struggled to
regain momentum.
“Game three is so important
in any match. The
momentum switched, and
we didn’t have that sense of
urgency,” said Gianacopolos.
“We came back but it was a
little too late.”
The Knights responded
with a tight victory in game
five to clinch the series, 15-
13.
Nick Powell paced the
Knights early with 20 kills and
10 digs. Alex Zajda distributed
41 assists. Chris Sherwill
finished with eight kills and
five digs. JEd Kliein scored six
kills with nine digs.
field, and it was nice to see.”
Cop scored another hat
trick with three goals and two
assists. Morrissey scored
twice. Thompson, Jamele,
and Florian scored.
Southington led by just one
goal at the half but rallied to a
7-2 advantage down the
stretch.
“I think our offense is
doing a good job of playing
within our scheme with
those tight inside shots and
dragging the midfielders
behind. They’ve all bought
into our system and it’s working,”
said the coach. “We've
got a very good defense, and
that helps a lot. Then, we
have a lot of good athletes on
the team, so we can get it
from defense to offense really
fast. That gives us an opportunity
to play more offense
April 24
Southington 3
Newington 2
Southington won the
game at the line, serving 93.2
percent as a team. Powell (20-
for-22), Zajda (21-for-21),
Sherwill, and Dave
Shaughnessy each scored
two aces, and Jeff Kolb (7
kills) anchored the defense
with seven of the team’s 13
blocks.
“I knew that the team
that made the fewest errors
would win the match,” said
Gianacopolos. “We changed
the momentum a little bit
and proved that we could
make the fewest errors. We
pulled out the win.”
Southington improved
to 6-1 overall and 2-0 in the
CCC West.
Lacrosse: tournament bound
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and score more goals.”
Now, Chase is looking
for his team to begin to show
consistency as they battle a
tough conference schedule.
With six games remaining,
the Knights (8-3) are still in
the running for a home contest,
but it won’t be easy.
“For me, it’s just one
game at a time right now,”
said Chase. “We’ve got
Windsor on Tuesday, and
that’s all we're playing for
right now. I’m not expecting
anything. I just want to win
the next game.”
To comment on this story
or to contact sports writer
John Goralski, email him at
jgoralski@southingtonobserver.com.
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