Girls continue to improve
The Nantucket varsity girls' soccer team hit the home pitch Sunday prepared to meet a much bigger and stronger Norwood squad. The team had only seen action once in the past ten days due to a hole in the schedule and a previously cancelled game against Norwood, but put the time to good use in intense sessions on the practice field.

As did the rest of the team, Justine Paradis (right) played with intensity against Norwood Sunday afternoon.

Despite a second loss to Norwood (5-0), Coach Jorge Rojas was very pleased with the game and felt that the score was not indicative of the level of play.

"We played better than the last time we met them," he said. "We were a different team. We defended well, challenged the ball and had intensity and toughness." He was optimistic about the future as well. "We are improving as we go along. Everyone is playing up to her potential, and if we keep playing this way we will get better and better."

Rojas felt that the Norwood coach must have been surprised at Nantucket's intensity as he called a timeout only seven minutes into the match. Rojas also reported that the coach said he was impressed with Nantucket's play and that it was a very different team from the one faced only a week before. He praised Nantucket as a team to "keep an eye on in the future."

Shantel Hanniford has been splitting goalkeeping duties with Sarah Poor for the past few games and was in net the first half, which ended with Norwood up, 3-0. Poor got the call in the second half to try to free Hanniford up to jumpstart the offense. Rojas was able to get playing time for all players when he started to sub in after 15 minutes in the second half. He feels this is vital to building a cohesive team.

Nantucket was able to fire off seven hard shots on the Norwood keeper, who Rojas credited as a major factor in Norwood's win. One of Nantucket's offensive highlights was provided by Hanniford, who took a "beautiful cross" from Kate MacLellan halfway through the second period, and then sent a laser through several defenders and the keeper, but missed just wide when Nantucket got there too late to tap it in. "Everyone thought it went in," Rojas noted later.

The lady Whalers face a busy week ahead with a home game today against Lighthouse Conference member Cape Cod Academy on the NES field at 3 p.m. and another conference

opponent, Sturgis, at home on Friday.

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- Linda Williams