It was a successful homecoming for Whaler sports teams on Sunday with four of five teams winning their respective matches. While the Whaler football team and the Island Cup was on everyone’s mind, the girls soccer team clinched a spot in the state tournament with a 3-2 win over Martha’s Vineyard.
Head coach Brian King said the Whalers first win of the season over Dennis-Yarmouth this month sparked his team and gave them confidence that has carried into these other games. He believes they are beginning to hit their stride at the right time.
“That D-Y game just allowed us to see the ball go into the net multiple times and gave us that confidence we really needed,” he said.
Evelyn Fey scored two goals for the Whalers and Adney Brannigan scored the other goal. Fey is in her hottest goal scoring stretch of the season and will need to continue finding the back of the net if the Whalers want to make any noise in the tournament.
Fey’s first goal was a beautifully placed ball off a free kick that the Vineyard’s goalie had no chance of stopping that went right under the crossbar on the far side of the net. Her second goal was similar but from even further out well past the 18-yard box.
The Whalers will learn their seeding in the state tournament this week. You can stay up to date with all of the Whaler sports teams playoff matchups, scores, and other Whaler content by checking in with our Nantucket Current Sports page on Instagram or following @dcreedACK on Twitter.
In other Whaler sports news from Sunday,
Field Hockey Drops Match To The Vineyard
The Whaler field hockey team had high hopes entering their matchup with Martha’s Vineyard on Sunday. After dropping their first match 2-1 on the Vineyard earlier this year on a last minute goal, Nantucket felt like they were capable of coming out on top this time around on their home field. But the end result was eerily similar this time around aside from the last minute goal, with Nantucket losing the game 2-1.
The Vineyard struck quickly with two goals to jump out to a 2-0 lead in the first quarter and gain early momentum.
“Tough loss for us today,” head coach Dan Weber said. “Obviously we would have really liked to come out on top. We were just a little off in the first quarter and gave up two goals on penalty corners. One was a tap in on the back post and another was a clean shot from around the stroke line.”
The Whalers did appear to shake off the slow start and began to gain momentum back.
“We turned it around the following 3 quarters and pretty much controlled the game,” Weber said. “Our goal was scored in the second quarter by Suz Peraner off an awesome play by Raegan Perry. Raegan took a hit from outside the circle right at Suz in front of the net who tipped it in.”
The Whalers forced over 10 penalty corners in the game due to their offensive pressure but weren’t able to score another goal.
“We’ll move on from it quickly though as we’ll have a playoff game this week,” Weber said. “We should find out when and where on Tuesday.”
Volleyball Wins 3-1 Over Nauset
The Whaler volleyball team won another match over the Nauset Warriors on Sunday to improve their record to 12-6 this season. The game was considered a scrimmage as all games considered towards playoff qualification needed to be completed by Saturday, but Nantucket used the match to tune up for what they hope to be a long postseason run.
They got off to a sluggish start losing the first set 21-25. They began to regain their focus in set two but were still off their game. They won the set 25-21 to enter the third set tied 1-1.
Sets three and four, the final two sets of the match, were Nantucket’s best. They were led by Amelie Roberts who had seven kills and seven blocks in those two sets alone. Chloe Marrero continues to elevate her game and had a team-high 14 kills and 10 aces while Bianca Santos once again had a strong day setting with 20 assists.
Nantucket won the final two sets handily by scores of 25-18 and 25-14. They will find out this week who they are playing in the first round of the state tournament.
Boys Soccer Wins 1-0 Defensive Showdown
Anyone who says soccer isn’t a physical sports would likely change their mind after watching the Whaler boys soccer team take on Martha’s Vineyard on Sunday.
The game was a 0-0 game for the first 73 minutes of the game with bodies colliding nearly every time a player touched the ball. But with seven minutes to play in the game Treyce Brannigan broke the tie with a strike off an assist from Yeison Castro that he hit with his right foot to the left side of the net, just beating the Vineyard goalie to give Nantucket a 1-0 lead that would stand as the final score.
The Whalers finished their regular season 12-4-1 and will also begin their state tournament play this week.
