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| Sacred Heart girls tennis won its first NVL team title on Thursday. No. 1 singles player Colleen Flanagan won her match, as did No. 2 Nellie Drewry, No. 3 Ava Longo and No. 4 Siobhan Gilmore. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69, file) |
A stellar season of NVL girls tennis came to a close on Thursday with the playing of the team and individual championship matches.
- Sacred Heart avenged its lone regular season loss in the biggest league match possible and took down Naugatuck 5-2 for the program’s first NVL girls team championship.
The Hearts swept singles behind the play of No. 1 Colleen Flanagan (8-6), No. 2 Nellie Drewry (8-5), No. 3 Ava Longo (8-3) and Siobhan Gilmore (8-1). In doubles, the NVL doubles champions Alexa Gallino and Nhi Nguyen won their No. 1 match 8-2. The Sacred Heart-Naugatuck rematch took place at Woodland Regional High School in Beacon Falls.
Sacred Heart is the No. 3 seed in the upcoming Class S girls team tournament. They get a first round bye and play the winner of No. 14 Northwest Catholic and No. 19 Holy Cross on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Fulton Park. The Eagles and Crusaders meet at 10 a.m.
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| St. Paul senior Victoria Kilbourne outlasted Wolcott’s Edona Bytyqi in three sets to win her first NVL singles title Thursday. (Copyright, Sports on CT-69, file) |
- In girls singles, St. Paul’s Victoria Kilbourne and Wolcott’s Edona Bytyqi had to wait until Thursday afternoon to complete their suspended NVL girls singles final at Wilby High School.
Bytyqi won the first set via tiebreaker, 7-6, but Kilbourne came back for a 6-4 win in the second set. The third set was played Thursday, and Kilbourne took it by a score of 6-2 to win the singles title.
As Joe Palladino of the Waterbury Republican-American noted, both players are seniors but both were playing in their first final.
BASEBALL
It will be Holy Cross and St. Paul for the NVL title, one week after the Crusaders rallied from a three-run deficit to stun the Falcons 4-3 in the regular season finale at Holy Cross High School. Holy Cross won its semifinal 8-6 over Seymour, and St. Paul took down Wolcott 8-2.
- Top-seeded Holy Cross trailed fifth-seeded Seymour 5-3 entering the bottom of the sixth inning at Municipal Stadium, but erupted for five runs to grab the lead. Two runs came in on an error off a ball hit by Fran Phelan Jr. to tie the game at 5-5. A trio of RBI singles from Tim Zupkus, Connor Goggin and Brian Parzyck followed and gave the Crusaders an 8-5 lead.
The Wildcats got a run in the top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly, but that was all. - Third-seeded St. Paul used the pitching of Julian Thayer and hitting by committee to take down second-seeded Wolcott. Thayer struck out eight in six innings and allowed two runs on just five hits. On offense, Ryan Greene (3 RBI, 2 runs scored) finished a home run short of the cycle, and Ryan Parent doubled, singled and drove in two runs. Nick Morrell doubled once, singled twice and scored two runs, and Thayer helped his own cause with two hits, two RBI and two runs scored. Josh Cofrancesco had a double and two runs scored.
Nick Trager had an RBI bunt single and Jeff Nicol singled home a run for Wolcott. - NVL title game: Today, 6 p.m., Municipal Stadium
- State Tournament Seeds: Holy Cross is No. 2 in Class S, St. Paul is No. 3. Wolcott is No. 3 in Class M.
SOFTBALL
St. Paul and Seymour meet for the third time this season today at 6 p.m. at Naugatuck High School, but this time the NVL title is on the line. The second-seeded Falcons beat sixth-seeded Watertown 7-5 after a late rally, and the top-seeded Wildcats downed fourth-seeded Wolcott 8-5. St. Paul and Seymour split their regular season meetings.
- St. Paul overcame a 5-0 deficit with four runs in the bottom of the fourth inning and three runs in the last of the sixth. In a game that had a bunch of errors to go around, Katelynn Oullette’s two-run double in the bottom of the sixth scored the go-ahead runs for the Falcons. All five of the Indian runs were unearned, thanks to four errors from the Falcons. It was ugly, as St. Paul head coach Gary Hovhanessian told Ed Daigneault of the Rep-Am, but the Falcons got through to their first final.
- Wolcott played tough and led 2-1 into the bottom of the fifth, only to see Seymour charge ahead with five runs in that frame. Marissa Morales and Katie Cosmos each hit home runs, Morales a two-run shot and Cosmos a solo dinger. Cosmos also doubled twice for the Eagles. Alexis Boyce had a double, a single and an RBI.
- NVL title game: Today, 6 p.m., Naugatuck High School
- State Tournament Seeds: St. Paul is No. 2 in Class S, Wolcott is No. 8 in Class M.
