High school spring sports playdowns have begun. Harwood’s boys’ tennis team defeated South Burlington 5-2 on Tuesday, May 30, to advance to the quarterfinals this week. Harwood swept the singles matches with Lucas Brumm in the first spot defeating South Burlington’s Yuyang Zhang 7-5, 6-2. In the number two slot, Cole Baitz beat Will Bradley 6-1, 6-3. Number three Alvar Calvo defeated Mateo Duracek 6-3, 6-1. Daniel Steber beat Daniel Kim 6-0, 6-1 in the number four spot and number five Colby Englehardt defeated Jay Eagle 6-4, 6-2. In doubles, South Burlington’s Jules Butler and Robin Hokemaiser defeated Harwood’s Christopher Cummiskey and Ollie Kottke 6-4, 6-0 and Jack Wolfe and Biel Aytes lost to South Burlington’s Nicolas Charlebois and James Bradley 6-2, 6-4.
“South Burlington is a really solid team but our [players] came out ready to win by playing our games. Every Harwood guy did something really well today but we also know we’re not done. The guys all wanted to focus on Friday as soon as the match was over,” said coach Grif Edwards. Harwood will face Stowe in Stowe in the quarterfinals on Friday, June 2, at 3 p.m.
GIRLS’ LACROSSE
Harwood’s girls’ lacrosse team won their final regular season game against Stowe, 6-5. “In our final game of the regular season Harwood battled all the way to the end,” said coach Hillary Wheeler. “Harwood maintained possession playing a player down due to a late yellow card (under two minutes to go in regulation) and came up with the win 6-5. The game went back and forth with several shots on each end, long goalie clears. Harwood struggled to capitalize on a few different scoring opportunities; Stowe held strong defensively. Stowe led at the half by 1, 4-3.
“Lindsey Boyden got Harwood on the board first and had one goal. Sadie Nordle dominated all over the field and ended up with three goals, her final and the go-ahead goal for us came late in the second half with 5:39 to go. Low defender, senior Cammy Rocheleau helped Harwood with draw controls and put up two goals. This team has players with lots of versatility and that has been a major benefit for us this season. Abi Leighty came up with nine saves.
“This team always plays with so much heart and hustle, they recognize what needs to be done, and we have been working on this during our practices. We look forward to continuing” in the playdowns. The girls won in their first playdown game on Tuesday, May 30, 9-7 over Colchester. They will face number-five seed Hartford in the quarterfinals at Hartford on Friday, June 2, at 5 p.m.
The girls’ tennis team was narrowly defeated 4-3 by St. Albans in their last regular season match on Wednesday, May 24. Harwood’s winning matches were by number two singles player Cierra McKay, who defeated Genevieve Laclair 6-6, 3-6, 9-11 and number five Quinn Nelson, who beat Sarah McConnall 3-6, 1-6. On the doubles side, number two Mae Murphy and Hadley won in a forfeit.
As The Valley Reporter goes to press, Harwood’s girls’ tennis team will face number nine Middlebury in their first playdown game on Wednesday, May 31.
