Lakes Region Sports Roundup 4/10/18

By Keith Murray

Sports Director WEEI

High school girls tennis preview

Lakers on an up-swing

MEREDITH — The Inter-Lakes Lakers are poised for a bounce back season with their top seven players returning; two seniors, one junior and five sophomores. Last year was a disappointing campaign but Coach Jocelyn Judge was encouraged by her young team.

“We look forward to improving on our 2-14 record from last year. Many of the matches that we lost were close and lost in doubles.” The lineup is not set but look for Alyssa Floyd, Ava Duymazlar, Gabriele Nedeau and Phoebe Hoag to be at the top of the roster. Others making an impact will be Belle Hoag, Molly Kernen, Ella St. Cyr and Alannah Ahlquist.

Judge’s goals?

“This year, we are going to focus on maintaining a strong singles game while improving our doubles game. Hopefully, we can go 8-8 and make the playoffs.”

The Interlakes program is in great shape as 20 girls have come out for the team. Look for the Lakers to get better and stronger in the years to come!

Players to Watch: Belle Hoag. It’s her final season and she could have a big year in the middle of the lineup.

Sophomore is top hitter in Gilford

GILFORD — The Golden Eagles look to return to top form this year after missing the playoffs last year. The top seven return but they are still quite young. Slated to be second seed, Sarah Filion is the sole senior and will be looked to for her experience and leadership.

Coach Hermann Defregger is excited about his young team.

“It’s great to see so many sign up but we have a lot of work to do.”

Top seed should be sophomore standout Reagan McIntire while juniors Jocey Curley and Olivia Salesky will likely be 3 and 4. The 5th and 6th slots will be a battle of sophomores Hannah Lord, Olivia Comeau and Madsion Eastman looking to play singles. Defregger has some realistic expectations.

“Our goal to get back to the playoffs and become stronger all the way around, technically, physically and gamesmanship. We also need to get the new players up to par ASAP.”

Players to watch: Reagan McIntire and Sarah Fillion should have a great year. But also seeds 3 through 6 should improve tremendously and watch that trio of sophomores fighting for the final two single slots.

Young Panthers cut their teeth

MOULTONBOROUGH — The Moultonborough Academy Panthers will have to overcome some losses to graduation as four seniors are gone from last year’s team. They were seeds 3, 4, 5 and 6. Sophomore Megan Colby and junior Jess Lear return at 1 and 2, while sophomores Aubrey Smart and Maddie Burns are slotted in at 3 and 4.

Coach Jere Burrows said the other slots are filling in nicely.

“Freshman Megan Swedberg will bring some needed help at 5 and Maddie Colby, a 7th grader, will compete at 6. Sophomore Olivia Watson and freshman Corrina Brennan round out the team and are working well to develop their skills.”

Coach Burrows knows it’s a transition year but has solid expectations.

“This is a good group of tennis players who can compete well and should have an interesting year. We are hoping to play well enough to make the tournament.”

Players to Watch: The young ones at the bottom of the singles should be interesting with Swedberg and Colby. They’ll get some much needed experience and might surprise.

Knights are strong this year

WOLFEBORO — The Kingswood Knights look to build on their 7-7 season last year with only two seniors graduating from the top 6. Coach Thomas Merrell was happy with last year and excited for this season.

“We just missed the tournament in a very close final match. Most of our top six are returning. We had an eighth grader, Emily Carpenter, who practiced with us last year. She will be either number 5 or 6. Our top players are Kara Phu and Marina Eneeva but I expect help from all of the top 14.”

So what are the expectations for Coach Merrell and the Lady Knights?

“I am very excited for this season. We have depth and strength in numbers. We should be better than last year.”

Players to Watch: Kara Phu and Marina Eneeva should have breakout years to lead the Knights from the top spots.

Laconia Youth Lacrosse

Here is a quick summary of the opening games: The 10U Girls tied Merrimack Valley 8-8. Fia Swormstedt had four goals while Abby Osmer and Sydney Moore had 2 goals each.

Coach Paul Marinace saw a lot of good things. “It was the first game ever for 10 members of the team and they all did an excellent job learning the positions and flow of the game.

“The 12U girls lost to Manchester PAL 9 to 4. McKenzie Kelley had 2 goals with Emma Welch and Amiyah Zanes each finding the back of the net once.14U girls lost to Manchester PAL 11-8. Katie Wescott tallied 3 goals. Mimi Hosmer and Alyssa Pepin two goals each and Madison Brooks added one goal.

The 12U boys beat Bedford 7-4 and the 14U boys beat Bedford 8-3. Cole Roy cashed in 4 goals with Tim Ausevich, Evan Carignan, Cam Harriman and Zach Whitney with one goal each. Coach Rod Roy was encouraged.

“The team really turned it up in the second half. The defense shut them out and the offense started clicking with great passing and the ability to find the back of the net. They all took some positive steps forward,” said Roy.

Both 10U boys teams were off due to fields being unplayable.

High school results

Inter-Lakes boys dominate

Yes, they actually played tennis last week! On the boys side, Inter-Lakes dominated Moultonborough Academy 8-1 as Nate Sullivan topped Tim Lahey, Gable Bushy beat Will Bird. In the #3 match Carter Teich made a game of it before falling 8-4. The sole win for the Panthers came in the #6 match with Stephen Wood winning 8-6.

There were a couple of girls matches with Gilford dropping their opener to Littleton 6-3 while Moultonborough Academy got off on the right foot defeating Profile 5-3 behind Megan Colby, Maddie Burns, Megan Swedberg and Maddie Colby with singles wins and Colby and Jess Lear slamming door shut in top doubles to take the match.

The Road Ahead

Today the Laconia boys and girls lacrosse teams will play a double header at Bank of NH Stadium as the fields at Coe-Brown are not ready so the boys will move to Laconia and play after the girls at 6 p.m. Both games can be heard live on WEMJ 107.3FM, beginning with the ladies at 4 p.m.

Keith Murray is the host of Lakes Region voice of Sports on 107.3FM WEMJ Saturday and Sunday Mornings at 9am and can be heard on WEEI 101.5FM with daily local sports updates.  Reach Keith by email: Sports@1015WEEI.com