Roundup
Centaurs take ECC Div. II boys’ tennis title
The ECC Div. II title belongs to the Woodstock Academy boys’ tennis team as it downed Killingly last week on the road, 5-2.
"I'm ecstatic," said coach Siana Green. "It's been my goal to accomplish this and to have only 10 players on a team and a quarter of them being pretty new to tennis, I couldn't be more proud."
Rodrigo Diez (6-0, 6-1), Ryan Chabot (6-1,6-2), Daniel Jameson  (6-3) and Heath White (6-1,6-1) all posted straight set singles wins for the Centaurs against the Trailblazers.
The singles players have been the bedrock for Woodstock this season.
"It's fantastic to have a player as skilled as Rodrigo to kind offset our two through four singles who are all pretty similar in strengths. There is really no drop off in skill between the three, they could play each other's position," Green said.
Diez is 9-1 thus far this season and is on an eight-match win streak.
"I think he has a very good mental game in addition to his strength. He hits a hard ball but he's also calm when he needs to be. That allows him to be strategic and hit the soft shots when he needs to. Sometimes, when No. 1 players play each other, they just try and outhit each other. That's where people make mistakes. Rodrigo is very smart with his game and when something is not working, he is willing to try something different:" Green said.
Now that a team title has been had, Diez can set his sights on an individual goal - ECC singles champion.
"Brady (O'Neil from Stonington), if Rodrigo has to play him, is a very strong player. Is it impossible to beat him? No. But Rodrigo has to be on top of his game and there will have to be a different strategy from the first time they played," Green said.
O'Neil won that first encounter 6-0, 6-2. 
O'Neil also has the experience as he has consistently challenged for the ECC singles crown.
The first doubles team of Cayden Worth and Steven Shen (6-3,6-4) also scored a win for the Centaurs against Killingly as Woodstock Academy improved to 5-0 in the division.
The Centaurs also traveled to East Lyme and found the undefeated Vikings to be tough customers as the hosts downed the Centaurs, 6-1, earlier in the week.
Diez posted a 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 win to account for the Centaurs only win.
Woodstock is 6-5 overall and will finish up with three home matches this week.
The Centaurs hosted NFA on Monday at the Pomfret School Courts and are also scheduled to host a doubleheader on Tuesday.  Woodstock will play New London at 3:45 p.m. and will then take on St. Bernard-Wheeler at 5 p.m. (The matches ended too late for this edition)
"I am more than hoping that we win our last three matches and I'm interested to see where that will put us in States. I would like to host a state tournament match," Green said.

Boys’ Volleyball
The regular season has come to a close for the Centaurs boys’ volleyball team.
The Centaurs played their 20th contest on Saturday and won for a 19th time as they got past Newtown, 3-1, on the road.
“That's fantastic. (Woodstock Academy Libero) Christian Hart's goal was to go undefeated for the season and that was a tall task," said coach Adam Bottone.
That also didn't happen as Farmington burst the perfect bubble a couple of matches before.
But what did happen was the team did finish undefeated in both the Connecticut Volleyball League where it went 12-0 and in the ECC  where it posted an 8-0 record in the first league season for the sport.
"As far as the two leagues, we were optimistic about (going undefeated) but the fact that we had that goal and the guys came through and executed was great. In three years, did I expect our record to be 19-1, probably not, but here we are."
What makes that even more impressive is how dominant the Centaurs have been.
For the season, Woodstock has lost five sets in 20 outings.
Newington took them to five before losing 3-2, Farmington handed Woodstock its only loss, 3-1, before Newtown won the first set on Saturday.
“Newington challenged us, we had to battle back from being down 2-1 to win in five which was good to see that they could battle if they needed to,” Bottone said.
The Centaurs also had to battle back a bit against Newtown.
The Nighthawks won the first set, 25-22, but Woodstock answered with wins of 25-22, 25-23 and 25-9.
Brayden Bottone had 23 kills while Gavin Hecker added 31 assists in the win. Evan Chernik added 15 kills and Owen Budd contributed 13.
The ECC season finished up earlier last week for the Centaurs with a 3-0 win over Putnam.
Hecker had 11 kills and 16 assists for Woodstock in the win over the Clippers. Hart had 13 digs and 12 service points in the win.
The Centaurs also celebrated Senior Day prior to the match with Putnam with Hecker, Vaughn Buzak and Weston Mission recognized for their contributions to the program. The Centaurs also recognized three international players, Ryan Yang, Lorenzo Ramponi and James Dong.
It was a short Senior Day program. That won’t be the same next season.
“I was going through my list and I’m going to have 11 seniors next year. I will still have some good players left after that but that’s a lot of kids to graduate. That’s an entire roster,” Bottone said.
The team began its final week of the regular season with a 3-0 shutout victory over Norwich Free Academy on the road.
Hecker had 16 assists, six kills and six digs against his former teammates while Brayden Bottone led the way with 13 kills and Chernik had five kills and 13 service points.
“We beat them 3-0 early on this season and this match was definitely more of a challenge,” Adam Bottone said.
The Wildcats hung in there in both the first and third sets, losing only 25-19. Woodstock took the middle set, 25-11.
“Their outside hitter, Mason Stohlammer, is pretty productive. He is good at going down the line, cross-court, doing tips and roll shots. They have a middle (hitter) who is also pretty productive,” Adam Bottone said.
That looms important as the Centaurs will see NFA for a third time this season this week.
The Centaurs will host the Wildcats in the first-ever ECC championship match at the at 5 p.m. May 21 at the Alumni Fieldhouse.
“It’s exciting that we will have the first-ever ECC boys volleyball championship game – the fact that we’re just having one in boys volleyball is fantastic- and being the first school to host is pretty cool,” Adam Bottone said.

Girls’ Lacrosse
Lacrosse is not the No. 1 sport in the life of Kaylee Saucier. In fact, it’s rapidly coming to an end for the senior.
“I got one week left of this and then, I’m going to go on and play basketball so what this is all about is being with my friends, having some fun and staying in shape,” Saucier said.
Saucier will be headed to the University of Hartford in the fall to play women’s basketball but she will have left her mark on the girls’ lacrosse program.
Earlier in the season, Saucier scored her 100th career point.
This past week, Saucier scored her 100th career goal in an 11-7 loss at Ledyard.
“I thought her 100th career point was her 100th career goal and she told me ‘Not yet.’ I said to her that we would it celebrate it again because I was sure she was going to get it,” coach Heather Miller said.
But Miller was unaware of how fast that would happen.
It was assistant coach Collin Singleton who informed Miller of the looming milestone after Saucier scored her third goal of the game against the Colonels.
“He asked me if I realized that was her 99th goal and I was like, ’What? She’s going to hit it (Tuesday)’,” Miller said. “I was hoping she was going to get it in her Senior Day game.”
She did get it in that game at Ledyard, getting not only the 100th but also her 101st.
 “It’s definitely special and not necessarily something that I thought I would be trying to achieve coming into high school and having never played lacrosse before but it does feel good now,” Saucier said. “I didn’t even think 100 goals was possible.”
Vivian Bibeau added the other two goals while Clara Dowdle had three assists.
Saucier raised her goal total to 43 for the season and her assists to 12 as she picked up three of each in a close battle with Stonington, the Bears scored with 2:10 left in the match to post the 10-9 victory Thursday.
Bibeau had five goals and Stella Puchalski added the other.
The loss meant the Centaurs fell to 2-10-1 overall.
“We’ve improved, even though the scoreboard doesn’t necessarily show it. We know we’ve improved and have tried our best even though we’re not the best sport at Woodstock Academy. We’re out here, we keep going and we’re getting a few wins along the way,” Saucier said.
Miller admitted she would like to have seen a few more wins.
“It’s not easy but it’s easier when you win than it is to play on a team or develop a program that is trying to reach that goal. Not everyone can do that. It takes a certain amount of perseverance from players and coaches to stick with it and not give up,” Miller said.
The Centaurs will finish up the season this week.

Baseball
It was truly a rollercoaster week for the baseball team.
A week where it qualified for the Class L state tournament but also saw its hopes for an ECC Div. II title go away.
The Centaurs did win their eighth game of the season on Friday to make the postseason with a 6-0 win over Rockville.
Logan Coutu and Trey Ramos combined for a one hitter with Coutu getting four strikeouts in the process.
The Centaurs, despite the six runs scored, did not have a very productive day at the plate as they carved out only three hits.
Will Ellsworth had two of those and drove in two runs while Trevor Turner had the other hit and an RBI.
Woodstock did benefit from five Rockville errors and five walks courtesy of Rams pitching to push the other three runs across.
The win briefly pushed the Centaurs back to the .500 mark but they slipped below that again on Saturday with an 8-2 non-league loss to Xavier to fall to 8-9.
The bats were a little more potent as the Centaurs produced nine hits against the Falcons but Xavier scored three runs in each of the first two innings and never trailed.
Turner had three hits and drove in a run for Woodstock Academy while Rhys Asikainen had a pair of hits.
After having played only one game the week before, the Centaurs made up for it with four games last week.
Four runs in the sixth inning without the benefit of a hit guaranteed the team a win over the Fitch Falcons, 8-1.
Turner knocked in two of his three runs in the sixth on a fielder’s choice.  Ellsworth had two hits and two RBIs while Hayden Maloney added two hits and was also the winning pitcher, going six innings with 11 strikeouts.
Turner had the only hit of the day, a lead-off single in the third inning, as the Centaurs were blanked by Stonington Monday, 10-0. 
The loss to the Bears knocked the Centaurs (4-4 ECC Div. II) out of contention for the Div. II title.

Softball
It was not an easy week for the softball team as it had to face two ECC Div. I teams and the Div. II leaders.
The Centaurs did play well against Ledyard, the top dog in Div. II.
Ellary Sampson had a big day at the plate with a 3-for-3 performance with three runs scored, three driven in and two homers but it was not enough to produce a win for the softball team which fell on the road to Ledyard, 9-7.
Maci Corradi and Faith Sortwell each had two hits for the Centaurs.
The softball team finished the week at home against Norwich Free Academy, which happens to be on top of Div. I.
The Wildcats showed why they are in that lofty position as they blanked the Centaurs, 12-0.
Campbell Favreau had the only hit in the game for Woodstock.
The softball team also came up on the short side of a 10-2 score to East Lyme.
Sampson had three hits, including a pair of doubles, and drove in both runs for the Centaurs. Sortwell also had a pair of hits in the loss.
Woodstock (2-16) finished up the season this week.

Boys’ Lacrosse
It’s now five wins in a row for the boys’ lacrosse team and that win streak has also accomplished something else.
The Centaurs qualified for the Class M state tournament with wins over Ledyard and Norwich Tech to raise their record to 8-6 overall.
“It’s like a relief for us because we only had four wins last year and didn’t make it after having made it in both my freshmen and sophomore years. It’s good to be back and, hopefully, get to play some teams that we don’t usually get a chance to play. It’s a good experience,” said senior Dylan Phillips.
The Centaurs continued to roll on Friday as they posted a 15-1 win over Norwich Tech on Senior Day.
Phillip Feaney Aleman had four goals and three assists while Corey Lafond added three goals and an assists and Phillips finished with two goals and four assists.
The offense has certainly been a key to the winning streak as it has produced 77 goals in the five consecutive wins.
“It’s fun,” said Phillips about the offensive output lately. “It’s great that we get to play with each other. We’re all very good friends so our chemistry clicks back and forth. We can find each other without looking, we know where each other will be at all times,” Phillips said.
Prior to the game on Friday, the Centaurs celebrated Senior Day with Owen Hamilton, Feaney Aleman, Logan Rumrill, Brady Gedutas, Quan Sangasy, Logan DelFarno, Blaise Gurski, David Genay, Kyle Parmeter, Phillips, Zach Armbruster, Lafond and Jeff Schaeuffler recognized for their contributions to the program.
Earlier in the week, the Centaurs effectively handled Ledyard, 19-7. Lafond had three goals and eight assists while Phillips finished with six goals and three assists for the Centaurs. Patrick Griswold added a hat trick in the win.
There have been some highlights for the team over the course of the win streak.
“It’s nice to win,” Phillips said. “We’ve really clicked especially in that big game against St. Paul Catholic and another big game against Bacon Academy which was a team we lost to last year by a lot. Bacon is a really good team; it beat Stonington which we lost to so it was nice to get that win.”
The Centaurs finish up the season this week with a pair of non-league matches with Ellington.

Boys’ Golf
If there is one place golf teams do not like to travel to it’s the Norwich Golf Course.
The course and the Norwich Free Academy Wildcats have held sway over the Centaurs for quite some time and that trend continued on Friday.
The boys’ golf team traveled south and fell to the Wildcats, 7-0.
It was not a surprise as the Wildcats are currently ranked second in Div. I of the CIAC, are on top of Div. I of the ECC with a 5-0 record and are 8-1 overall,
NFA won all five individual matches and also took the two-point team medal, 150-172.
Junior Brady Hebert was best for the Centaurs (7-4, 3-2 ECC Div. I) with a six-over par 42.
Alex Haggerty and Blake Hudock each had a 43 for the Centaurs.
The Wildcats had three players under 40 including Tyler Hollis who finished under par with a 35.
The Centaurs picked up a win at home against East Lyme on Tuesday and on the road, although closer to campus, against Ellis Tech.
The Centaurs took advantage, having their best scoring output of the season, in a 159-198 win over the Eagles.
Aidan O'Connor led the way with a two-over par 38 on the short Harrisville course while Hebert carded a 39 and Hudock came in with a 40.
The Centaurs picked up an ECC Div. I win the day before with a 6-1 victory over the Vikings.
Hebert shot a 41 to lead the way while O'Connor, Max Kopp and Haggerty all brought 42's to the clubhouse.
The golf team opened the week in a sixth-place tie with a 171 total in the CIAC Spring Classic tournament. O’Connor shot a 41 and Hebert added a 42 to lead the Centaurs.
Norwich Free Academy won the event with a 153 total.

Girls’ Golf
The undefeated ways of the girls’ golf team in the ECC continued last week although there was a close call.
The Centaurs just got past a determined East Lyme team, winning by the slimmest of margins, a stroke, 220-221 Tuesday.
Reagan Scheck led the way with a 49 for Woodstock which was playing without No. 2 player Lily Moran.
“I was more than a little concerned about Lily missing the match but every team has to go through that with (advanced placement) testing. As a matter of fact, East Lyme was also missing one of their better players but it is what it is. There are a lot of blind shots at (the Old Lyme Country Club) which makes for a very interesting day,” coach Earl Semmelrock said.
Colbie O'Connor and Brianna Beck helped fill the void as both carded 56's in the narrow win.
“It came down to making a few more putts than they did. I was really happy to get out of there with the victory,” Semmelrock said.
Scheck finished with a four-over par 40, O’Connor added a 48 and Moran a 49 on Monday as the Centaurs downed Bacon Academy 187-238.
Woodstock leads the ECC with a 7-0 record and is 9-1 overall
The Centaurs have two more matches this week, including the first showdown with another undefeated team in the league, Killingly.
“I know Killingly has been playing well so it will be a good test to see where we stand,” Semmelrock said. "Their No. 1 had been out a couple of weeks with an injury but I believe she is back. I’m feeling pretty confident that we will do a good job if we play golf as we are capable,” the Woodstock Academy coach said.
Another change for the better might be the weather as early predictions call for summer-like heat this week.
“It’s another one of those years where we go from early spring-type weather into summertime but I’m looking forward to the hot conditions and better weather,” Semmelrock said.

Girls’ Tennis
The girls’ tennis team clinched the ECC Div. II regular season title for itself with a 7-0 win over Killingly at home on Senior Day Monday.
“It was great to see the team accomplish one of our big goals for the season,” said coach Stephen Wetherell. “We got to do so on Senior Day, too, which made it all the better. They have been very locked in as a team and we are looking forward to what else we can accomplish.”
The singles guaranteed the Centaurs the victory as Gianna Musumeci (6-2, 6-2), Wynter Worth (6-1, 6-1), Kerrigan Reynolds (6-3,7-5) and Catherine Trudeau (7-5, 6-1) all came through with victories.
Musumeci, Mariia Oliinyk, Reynolds, Worth, Sophia Aguilar Del Olmo and Andrea De Cos Ortiz were recognized in Senior Day festivities prior to the match.
Even though it is just his first year with the team, Wetherell has quickly gained an appreciation for his seniors.
“I will definitely miss them,” the coach said. “Being that it is my first year as coach, they will always be the first senior class for me. They have been fantastic leaders for the team, extremely helpful, patient and kind to me and just, overall, great people.”
The Centaurs followed up that win with their straight victory as they stopped Norwich Free Academy, 6-1, 
The win meant the Centaurs finished undefeated in Div. II of the ECC (6-0) and are now 11-1 overall.
Musumeci, Worth, Reynolds and Trudeau made life easy on the doubles teams as the singles players all posted victories.
“The team is definitely in a great mindset. Our biggest thing is making sure that we remain focused. The girls know that and they are taking these last couple of matches before the postseason seriously,” Wetherell said. “I think the added motivation of where we can take this season has been great for the girls and team morale.”
Marc Allard
Director of Sports Information
The Woodstock Academy

IMG 4938, Boys Volleyball Senior Day, IMG 5083

A host of Senior Day celebrations were held by Woodstock Academy athletic programs last week. The girls’ tennis team, boys’ volleyball team and boys’ lacrosse teams all held their Senior Days. (Photos by Stephen Wetherell, Sean Saucier, Collin Singleton/Woodstock Academy)

IMG 4709: Woodstock Academy senior Kaylee Saucier reached another milestone this past week, notching her 100th career goal (Photo by Marc Allard/Woodstock Academy.

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