The Whaler volleyball team beat the St. John Paul II Lions 3-2 Thursday afternoon. It was their fifth win in their last six contests and improved their record to 5-2 on the season.
“It is great to be 5-2 but what I really care about is whether we are improving,” head coach Andrew Viselli said. “I don’t care if we are 10-1 or 10-0. I just want to see our team improving. If during a timeout I am giving instructions and I see them putting it into effect on the court, then I am happy, and that is what I am seeing from this team.”
The Whalers won the first set 25-19 but lost the second set 19-25. Viselli said his team looked dramatically different in the sets they won compared to the sets they lost.
“The kids played really well in the first set,” Viselli said. “They were serving well. The attacks were there. My only takeaway from the first set was our passes were a little bit sloppy and we had to move our feet a little bit better. I felt like in the sets we lost it was magnified so much and when it is bad it is oh so bad and it didn’t look pretty at all.”
The Whalers took a 2-1 lead in the match after winning the third set 25-16. Outside hitter Kacey Riseborough led the way with 15 kills on the day while her setter Bianca Santos was dishing her the ball on her way to 24 assists for the match.
But the Whalers struggled mightily in the fourth set, dropping it 14-25.
“After that third set I was like okay we are starting to stabilize things here,” Viselli said. “Then in the fourth set we literally didn’t play well at all but we started to play a little better in the middle of it. But it was too little too late for us. We started to do the fundamentals and little things right but we were too far behind.”
The Whalers won the fifth and final set handily 15-6. Viselli said he believed their passing came through for them in the final set and their service was able to build Nantucket an early lead they wouldn’t give away.
“We aren’t even halfway through the season and we are a young team so I keep reminding myself of that,” Viselli said. “This group works very hard and they are finding ways to win. They wanted to come into this year continuing what they accomplished last year, which they are, but we need to make sure we know we can’t play down to teams. We have to find our voice, our way, and make sure we know we need to be playing to a certain level each match.”
The Whalers will look to improve their record to 6-2 on Saturday at 12 pm when they travel to take on the Holbrook Bulldogs. The Whalers defeated the Bulldogs earlier this month 3-1 on Nantucket.
In other Whaler sports news from Thursday,
Golf wins match against Cape Cod Academy
The Whaler golf team beat the Cape Cod Academy Seahawks 3.5-2.5 yesterday, snapping a four-match losing streak and improving their record to 3-4 on the season.
Cole Chambers won his match and shot a 37. Aidan Sullivan won his match and shot a 40. Cole Evens won his match and shot a 43. Camden Knapp tied his match, shooting a 50. It was the Whalers second win over the Seahawks this season.
The Whalers will look to improve their record to .500 on Monday when they travel to take on the Monomoy Sharks.
Girls soccer struggles against Nauset
The Whaler girls soccer team lost to the Nauset Warriors 4-1 yesterday, dropping their record to 0-5 this season.
“I thought they held their own against a very deep and talented Nauset team,” head coach Brian King said.
The match was scoreless for the first 30 minutes, but the Warriors were able to score a goal at the 30th minute and 38th minute to take a 2-0 lead going into halftime.
The Warriors extended their lead to three five minutes into the second half, but Nantucket cut it back to two at the 18th minute off a corner kick play Sarah Hanlon was able to finish.
“Sarah knocked one in off her body on a corner kick and it was something we had worked on in practice the day before,” King said. “Cydney Mosscrop played great in the midfield. Controlling the ball at her feet and making people miss. She was able to create scoring opportunities for our forwards. Evelyn Fey and Emerson Milne had two excellent scoring opportunities that went just wide of the net.”
The Warriors added one more goal before the match ended to send Nantucket home with a 4-1 loss. While the Warriors scored four goals, Whaler goalie Macy Crowell had another strong performance, finishing with 20 saves and giving her team a chance despite being severely outshot.
“(Crowell) was under pressure the entire game,” King said. Macy continues to frustrate opposing forwards with her saves.”
The Whalers will travel to take on Martha’s Vineyard tomorrow at 12:30 pm.
Boys soccer trounced by Nauset
The Whaler boys soccer team lost to the Nauset Warriors on the road yesterday by a score of 5-0, dropping their record to 2-2 this season. The Warriors scored three goals in the final 17 minutes of the first half to take a 3-0 lead into halftime.
“We were a little nervous in the first half,” head coach Rich Brannigan II said. “There is an aura and mystique about coming here and playing Nauset because their program is historically so good. They’ve been state champions, repeat state champions, so you have to overcome that aura. I thought we settled down as the game went on.”
The Warriors struck with two quick goals in the first five minutes of the second half to put the game completely out of reach.
“I didn’t think we really played horribly I just thought Nauset was first to a lot of balls in the box, which is something we did really well the other day against Falmouth,” Brannigan said. “I think this is all stuff we can fix up in practice and we will get to work on it.”
The Whalers will travel to take on Martha’s Vineyard tomorrow at 2:30 pm.
