Contributors: Bria Irizarry, Isaiah Caldwell and Colleen Gunning
Twitter: @daathletics
Instagram: @dacavsathletics
Over the last week, Durham Academy spring sports have had some impressive outings, including two 10-run wins by the baseball team, a 16-save performance by boys lacrosse senior goalkeeper John Donovan, a girls lacrosse win over Ravenscroft School for the first time since April 2017, seven first-place finishes by the girls track and field team that contributed to an overall first-place win and a 4–0 start to the boys tennis season with all four wins exclusively shutouts.
The Cavs move into a busy April with just two days on the calendar without contests. After the short break in play this long weekend, DA baseball will face Grace Christian and then hit the road to Charlotte to compete against both Charlotte Country Day School (5–4) and Charlotte Latin School (2–6).
Boys golf and girls soccer will host Wake Christian Academy, while boys tennis will have back-to-back contests vs. non-conference Cardinal Gibbons High School and Cary Academy, who are both 3–1 on the season. Boys lacrosse will host Cary Academy (3–3) and Charlotte Country Day (6–3), while girls lacrosse will travel to Saint Mary’s School (2–4). And finally, the Cavalier track and field team will have its third away meet in a row at Cary Academy.
Baseball
DA baseball moved to 3–1 on the season after 10-run wins over Cannon School and Trinity School, followed by a tough loss to North Raleigh Christian Academy this week.
Junior Jackson Niedel started on the mound for the Cavs in Thursday’s win over the Cannon Cougars. Niedel pitched four shutout innings in 55 pitches with two hits and four strikeouts. Sophomore Mark Caveney came in to close the fifth inning, only letting up one run for the Cavs to defeat the Cougars 11–1. The Cavs brought in their 11 runs on 11 hits, with Niedel leading the team with three RBIs.
In Monday’s win over Trinity, junior Ethan Goldstein got the offense started with a home run over the center field fence in the first inning. The Cavs added seven more runs after finding the outfield gaps to take a quick 8–0 lead. In the next at-bats, DA loaded the bases with two outs and sent in three more runs to push its lead to 11–0. Junior Stephen Lamb took the mound for the first two innings, facing 10 batters and allowing just one run to enforce the 10–run mercy rule after five innings.
The next night, the Cavs faced a tough NRCA team on the road and fell 12–1. DA struggled to get going on offense after the Knights took an early lead in the second inning. It wasn’t until the top of the fifth that sophomore William Chen scored the team’s first run, but the NRCA gap was already too big to recover from.
The Cavs will be back on the field to face the Knights at home at 4:30 p.m. Thursday.
Boys Golf
DA boys golf faced NRCA twice this week, dropping both contests to the Knights by just four and five points. Last Thursday, the Cavs hosted North Raleigh at the Hope Valley Country Club and lost 149–144. Senior Jackson Brimfield was the medalist for DA after scoring a 33. Seventh-grader Tate Duensing scored a 35, ninth-grader Quinn Huckabee shot a 40 and there was a tie between sophomore Nicholas Hogan and seventh-grader Hall Chapman at 41.
Wednesday, just five days later, the Cavs traveled to Hasentree Golf Club in Wake Forest to take on the Knights, but unfortunately came up short, losing 159–155. Brimfield was named medalist again, this time with a 37, followed by Duensing – who also shot a 37. In their second match against the Knights, Hogan shot a 41 and Chapman shot a 43.
The boys move to 0–2–1 on the 2021 season and will return to the course next Tuesday at Hope Valley Country Club vs. Wake Christian Academy at 3 p.m.
Boys Lacrosse
DA boys lacrosse notched its second road win on Friday, defeating conference foe Ravenscroft 9–3. The Cavs had five different goal scorers and four assisted goals. Senior John Donovan had eight saves in the cage.
The Cavs got on the board early with two goals from junior Austin Corbett, a goal and an assist from senior Jimmy Zavaglia and an unassisted goal from senior Gavin Schulz, putting the Cavaliers up 4–1. DA saw contributions from sophomore Hugh Wheeler and Schulz again off a man-up situation to make the score 8–2 in favor of the Cavs. Early in the second half, Corbett found the back of the net for his third goal of the night, and the team never looked back. DA finished the game holding the Ravens to just three points, and the Cavs won 10 out of 14 face-offs.
The Cavs took to the field again on Wednesday afternoon to face non-conference opponent North Cross School from Roanoke, Virginia, and the Raiders came away with the 15–5 win. The game was played at the Durham County Stadium and under very soggy conditions. The visiting Raiders, who were 5–1 heading into the contest, came out of the gates and scored two goals within the first minute of play.
Junior Charlie Rand came up with an interception on the defensive end to help get the ball into the Cavs’ offensive end, but the DA shot sailed wide and the Raiders took the ball down the other end for their third goal of the game. The Raiders then added one more goal to go up 4–0 at the end of the first quarter.
The Cavs won the first face-off of the second quarter and earned their first goal of the game off a long isolation drive from Schulz. Despite the Cavs’ momentum, the Raiders were relentless on the offensive end, and before the end of the half, they scored three quick goals to lead 8–1 at the break.
The Cavs again gained possession off the opening face-off in the third quarter and were able to find the back of the net off a feed from Wheeler to sophomore John Bolognesi. Midway through the third quarter, Corbett fired one past the Raiders’ goalkeeper — but after a few balls on the ground were scooped up by the Raiders, DA found itself behind 11–3. At the end of the third quarter, Donovan had an interception and a low save, but the Raiders were still able to extend the lead to 12–3. Sophomore Brodie Mason and ninth-grader Clay Meredith eventually gave the Cavs their fourth and fifth goals of the afternoon, but it wasn’t enough to bridge the gap and the Raiders came out on top.
DA is 2–1 on the season and will have a quick turnaround, taking on conference opponent NRCA on the road Thursday at 4:30 p.m.
Girls Lacrosse
The girls lacrosse team came away with a bold 13–8 win over Ravenscroft last Thursday evening on Alumni Field — the first time DA has defeated the Ravens since April 2017. With the victory, the Cavs improved to 3–0 on the season, while the Ravens fell to 2–4 overall.
“I am impressed with my team overall,” head coach Debbie Rebosa said. “They did an excellent job from the goal, all the way down to the attack.”
The game began with a Ravens goal, but it didn’t take the Cavs long to step up to the challenge. Junior Brooke Epstein kicked off the scoring with a strong one-on-one take to the cage and put the ball in the back of the net. Ravenscroft earned the next possession, but junior goalkeeper Mirella Kades made a save and senior Cecile Meredith scored off an assist by ninth-grader Kyla Newkirk on the other end. The Cavaliers went up by three goals midway through the first half after causing turnovers in the midfield. The Ravens were able to take advantage of a two-minute man-up penalty by scoring two goals, but again, the Cavs answered with a goal from ninth-grader Evelyn Guyer — who came in off the penalty. By the end of the half, the score was 9–3 in favor of the Cavs, after three assisted goals and a successful free-position shot.
The start of the second half saw the Cavs with the momentum, as sophomore Spencer Jennings notched her second goal of the game. It wasn’t long before the Ravens slipped one past Kades, though, and they slowly began to fight their way back by winning the ground ball fight. Two back-to-back goals by Ravenscroft off of 50/50 balls cut DA’s lead to 11–5. But the Cavs gained a few possessions off the draw, and Epstein was able to find teammates Guyer and Jennings for goals that extended the lead to 13-5. Senior Rebecca Urato and ninth-grader Fleming Burkert helped slow the Ravens’ attack from there, and Kades made two more saves to help secure the win.
“There are so many players and so many layers to our team that we are dominating lately,” Rebosa said. “It is really great to see them working together.”
The Cavs travel to Charlotte next Thursday for their second road game of the season, a 5 p.m. showdown against a strong, 5–1 Charlotte Latin team.
Girls Soccer
DA varsity girls soccer is still looking for the team’s first win of the season after close losses to Ravenscroft and NRCA this past week.
In Thursday’s loss to Ravenscroft, the game was evenly matched with both teams firing strong shots on goal, but all missed wide and the game remained scoreless at halftime. Ten minutes into the second half, the Ravens capitalized on a penalty kick to put the first point on the board. The DA offense had two good looks from junior Molly Hunter and sophomore Kaia Vorenkamp, but both shots hit the post and the Cavs fell 1–0 in the end.
Tuesday’s road game vs. NRCA had a similar outcome. Sophomore Cameron Mackay was huge in the net for the Cavs, making three incredible saves in a row before letting the first goal in after 22 minutes of play. DA sent a few good looks into the box, but couldn’t get anything past the Knights goalkeeper. The Knights slid another shot past Mackay late in the second half, and the Cavs were unable to recover from the 2–0 hole.
The Cavs are back on Moylan Field this Thursday to face Cary Academy at 4:30 p.m.
Boys Tennis
The varsity boys tennis team won its only match of the week, a road contest vs. the NRCA Knights. The 9–0 victory was another dominating performance for the Cavs and their fourth 9–0 win in four matches.
Sophomores Pete Crowley and Paul Wang and senior Frank Borden continue to lead the team at the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 spots for singles matches. In this match, both Crowley and Wang defeated their opponents 6–0, 6–0. Borden, senior Jackson Zobrist, junior Gavin Levinson and senior Jack Preble rounded out the singles scoring with four convincing wins, never letting their opponents win more than three games.
The doubles matches continued to prove DA's dominance, as the Nos. 1 and 2 teams featuring Borden/sophomore Owen Brent-Levenstein and senior Joey Shaheen/Zobrist, respectively, captured 8–0 wins. The No. 3 doubles match was a thriller, and it was also the first match of the year for sophomore JP Dilweg and junior Aadesh Anchaliya. The pair won the match 9–8 (12–10) and saved six match points to earn the victory.
DA boys tennis will return to the court on Tuesday, when it will take on the Wake Christian Bulldogs at Millbrook Exchange Park at 4 p.m.
Track and Field
The boys and girls varsity track teams competed in a single meet Thursday at North Raleigh Christian Academy. The Cavs competed against NRCA, Fayetteville Christian School and St. David’s School. The boys team placed second overall, and the girls team secured a first-place finish.
Strong performances from sophomore Zebee Jewell-Alibhai in the 800-meter race, senior Jay Shanahan in the 1,600-meter race and the entire 4x400-meter relay team contributed to the boys team securing second place. The boys also had a few members of the team set personal records on Thursday. Senior Charlie Robb set a personal record in the 200-meter race, sophomore Noah Triplett set one in the 100-meter race and senior Kabir Khwaja set one in the 3,200-meter race.
The varsity girls track team earned first place overall with a score of 98.5. Like the boys, the girls also set plenty of personal records at the meet — including sophomores Amani Diallo and Jordin Brown in the 200-meter race, senior Lucy Steiner in the 800-meter race and sophomore Mariam Abdelbarr in the 400-meter race. The DA girls also scored first place in multiple events. Senior Anna Catherine Wilson won the 3,200-meter race with a time of 11:47.20; ninth-grader Ama Mensah-Boone won the 100-meter hurdles event with a time of 19.65; and the 4x200-meter relay team won with a time of 1:57.23.
Both teams look forward to their next meet, taking place Thursday at TISAC rival Ravenscroft. The meet is set to start at 4 p.m.
Keeping Up with the Cavs
As always, you can keep up with the Cavs on Durham Academy’s website and the Durham Academy App (available on the Apple App Store).
- For a list of all teams, their schedules and directions to games, visit www.da.org/teams.
- Click on an individual team to subscribe to automatic alerts about athletics results, postponements and cancellations, calendar and athletic event reminders. You can also import team schedules into your electronic calendars.
- All information about the daily athletics schedule is also available on DA’s Athletics Hotline: 919-489-2534 (ext. 5).
The DA App: Schedules and Results
- The DA App allows you to keep up with athletics wherever you are. You can download the app from iTunes at http://bit.ly/DACavaliers. The DA App pulls athletics content directly from the DA website and delivers it to iOS-based devices including iPhone and iPad.
- The Athletics portion of the DA App (after launching, click Menu, then click Athletics to open) features results of recent games, a list of upcoming contests and team records.