Well, it’s Sunday and you know what that means. It’s time for the Sports Watch, the fastest three minutes in Weston Sports coming your way right now:
We start with some special news this week, as Weston sophomore girls’ basketball star forward Saliah Serrette was named Dual County League Small Division Co-MVP with Wayland’s Jen Berkowitz. And joining Serrette as DCL All-Stars were senior teammates Anna Duffey and Allyon Pemberton, while sophomore Bianca Brueckner was named to the Honorable Mention team.
“[That’s] exciting news this week,” Weston head coach Linda Martindale said.
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The quartet helped lead the Wildcats to their second straight DCL Small title, as Weston stands at 12-7 overall, including 8-1 in its division.
“We are back-to-back champions!” Martindale exclaimed.
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Against league foe Arlington last week, the host Wildcats sealed the deal with a 50-30 win over the Spy Ponders.
“We played terrific team defense and moved the ball really well on offense,” Martindale said.
Serrette continued to dominate in all phases of the game. She poured in a team-high 16 points, grabbed 15 rebounds, made three steals, and had one block.
Pemberton contributed nine points, three boards, three assists, and two swipes. Brueckner matched Serrette with a whopping 15 rebounds, while adding eight points, two steals, two assists, and one block.
“Bianca had a great game,” Martindale said.
Sophomore forward Kayla Lawrence, junior guard Sami Gosman, and sophomore forward Nicolette Kombouras “all came off the bench and played strong at the end of the game,” the coach added.
Meanwhile, everything is cool in the pool. Junior standout Bianca Tocci and sophomore star Jack Blyzinskyj highlighted the Weston ticket at the MIAA North Swimming Sectionals at MIT.
Tocci won the 100 freestyle and finished second in the 50 free. She touched at t 52.08 in the 100, beating Lincoln-Sudbury’s Christina Hurley, who placed second with a time 52.93. Tocci finished the 50 in 24.28, less than a second behind L-S’s Lauryn Brown, who placed first, touching at 24.04.
Blyzinskyj, meanwhile, took second in the 50 free and third in the 100 backstroke. Blyzinskyj’s time of 22.10 in the free fell just short of Lowell winner Erick Flynn’s mark of 22.07. Blyzinskykj finished the backstroke in 53.14, behind L-S’s Sam Gyori and St. John’s Prep’s Aaron Athanas, who touched at 52.44 and 52.80, respectively.
Also contributing for the Weston girls was junior Stephanie Palocz, who finished fourth in the 100 backstroke in a time of 1:03.80. For the boys, sophomore Tommy Preacher took sixth in the 100 free, touching at 49.83.
As team, the Weston boys took fourth place with a score of 123. St. John’s Prep won the event with a tally of 268, followed by Lincoln-Sudbury and Reading, who totaled 198 and 131, respectively.
The Weston girls finished sixth with a score of 129. Wayland won out with a tally of 226, followed by Marblehead, at 221, and Lincoln-Sudbury, at 213.
Finally, they could be called the fighter and they certainly had a lot of true grit, these members of the Weston-Wayland girls’ hockey team, who outshot host Waltham by a whopping 27-10 count, but fell to the Hawks, 4-2, to close a winless but promising campaign on Saturday.
“Even without a win this year, we are optimistic for next year because we don’t graduate anyone,” W-W head coach Bill MacDonald said. “The experience and improvement from this year should pay off with success next year.”
Trailing 2-0, in the first period, Weston-Wayland started to control the play, though Waltham expanded the lead to 3-0 midway through the second stanza. After that goal, however, W-W’s hard work finally paid off, as Katherine Goguen and junior captain Jess Greenwood both tallied to make it 3-2.
A nice feed by Cara Lembo to Goguen set up the first strike. Goguen delivered a strong wrist shot that banked in to the short side. Greenwood followed with a rush from the left side and ripped a shot from in close that Waltham goalie Ronelle LeBlanc blocked, but couldn’t control. Greenwood pounced on the loose puck and went top shelf to cut the deficit to one.
The Hawks, though, got some insurance with a goal in the final frame, though Weston-Wayland outshot Waltham, 7-3. W-W pulled its goalie with 1:16 left, and had a number of chances, but the Hawks held on to improve their season record to 6-8. W-W fell to 0-13-1.
Weston-Wayland’s Kaitlyn Gordon got the start in net, replacing regular starter Andrea Defina. Gordon had some tough luck early on as Waltham's Michelle Volleman scored on a well-placed wrist shot from high in the slot just one minute into the game. Waltham’s second strike came after the Hawks won a faceoff in the W-W zone. Center Victoria DiBlasi drew the puck to Michelle Kudlate, who scored on a backhander to the far side through a screen in front. DiBlasi then tallied in the second frame, before Weston-Wayland made its surge.
