By Bria Irizarry
Twitter: @daathletics
Instagram: @dacavsathletics
We are heading into the second half of the fall season, and our teams are working hard on the courts, fields and courses! We are looking forward to honoring longtime head field hockey coach Judy Chandler before next Friday’s 4:15 p.m. game vs. Saint Mary’s School. The game will be played under the lights on Alumni Field, and we will honor Coach Chandler before the contest. We invite all DA field hockey alumni to come and join us on the field for a special celebration of Coach Chandler and all that she has done for our program over the past 30 years!
This week’s Performance of the Week is brought to you by the DA girls tennis team, which outlasted Triangle Independent Schools Athletics Conference (TISAC) foe Ravenscroft last Friday night 7–2, in a four-hour, 20-minute match.
The Cavs started the match with doubles wins from seniors Mukta Dharmapurikar and Chloe Bayer (8–3 on Court 3) as well as sophomores Godiya Mangai and Kiersten Hackman (8–5 on Court 2) to give DA a 2–1 lead.
The singles matches got off to a strong start as Mangai, ninth-grader Zara Miller and juniors Aerin Borden and Allison Preble took the lead over their opponents. It wasn’t long before Borden earned DA its next point with a 6–0, 6–3 win on Court 5 to bring the score to 3–1. Dharmapurikar was next to close out her match with a 6–2, 6–4 win on Court 3, and shortly after that both Preble (on Court 6) and Miller (on Court 4) came out on top to extend the Cavs’ lead to 6–1.
Eighth-grader Danna Chaparro dropped her singles match on Court 2, but all eyes were on Court 1 as Mangai battled with her Ravenscroft opponent. Mangai lost her first set 7–5 but rebounded to take the second set in a tiebreaker, 7–4. In the third-set match tiebreaker, Mangai started in front and held on for the 10–7 win.
Mangai said she was ecstatic after the match ended.
“The entire match felt like a marathon,” Mangai said. “I’m just glad that I was able to pull out a win for my team.”
Mangai attributes a lot of her resilience to her teammates. “What has helped me every time I step foot on the tennis court about to play a match is that I know no matter what, my team is always next to me cheering for me,” she continued.
Assistant coach Sarah Motsinger is impressed by how Bayer and Dharmapurikar — the senior captains — have led the team so far this season.
“Their desire for this team to be cohesive, successful and fun sets an important example to the rest of the players about our expectations, values and goals,” Motsinger said. “Tennis is mostly viewed as an individual sport, and it’s critical to have your captains send a clear message that we win or lose together because we are a team first.”
The victory improved the Cavs’ record to 2–0 in the conference and 4–4 overall. The Cavs are ranked 15th in the latest High School OT Eastern NC rankings.
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.