By Bria Irizarry and Colleen Gunning
Twitter: @daathletics
Instagram: @dacavsathletics
The spring sports season has kicked off with practices, and the Cavs will look to keep the winter momentum going. Boys golf will look to improve on the team’s 2–3–1 record and third-place finish in the Triangle Independent Schools Athletic Conference (TISAC) last season. The Cavs return with eighth-grader Tate Duensing and junior Will Chapman, who both scored in the state championships last spring.
DA’s new varsity baseball coach, Dean Deese, will lead the Cavaliers into the 2022 season on Tuesday when they host Durham School of the Arts at 4 p.m. The Cavs return three All-Conference seniors: Sean Donahue, Ethan Goldstein and Jackson Niedel.
After going 9–6 and earning the Triangle Independent Schools Athletic Conference title last season, the boys lacrosse team begins its 2022 campaign with some hearty competition. The Cavs will face Charlotte Latin School and Christ School in the King of Spring Lacrosse Classic next week for the first two games of the season.
DA girls lacrosse made it to the North Carolina Independent School Athletics Association (NCISAA) state semifinals last year and tallied only two losses on the season. The Cavs return All-American senior midfielder Brooke Epstein and look to defend their TISAC title in 2022.
Girls soccer, which was 6–7 last season, will return to the field in 2022 with the opponent that ended its season in 2021, Wesleyan Christian. The Cavs face off with the Trojans on March 3 at 4 p.m. on Moylan Field.
After a year hiatus, the girls varsity softball team will return to the field and host its season opener after spring break vs. Thales Academy.
Boys tennis will kick off the spring season next Thursday vs. Wesleyan and then travel to Florence, South Carolina, for a spring break tournament. Junior Pete Crowley was recently named to the HighSchoolOT.com 919 Watch List.
Girls track and field will look to defend its 2021 TISAC title, as will senior Juliana Hallyburton, who set a TISAC meet record and earned first place in the pole vault at the state meet. Junior Amani Diallo and sophomore Ama Mensah-Boone will be impact sprinters, while sophomore Ava Rose Turek and senior Izzi Gershon will contribute in the field.
The boys track and field team hopes to improve on its fourth-place finish at the 2021 TISAC meet and will look for contributions from junior Aaron Caveney in the 800-meter race and senior Jet Tanaka in the field. DA will host five track and field meets over the course of the spring season, with the first set for March 3 at 4 p.m.
Girls Basketball
The varsity girls basketball team’s season ended after a tough fight with top-seeded Rabun Gap in the state quarterfinals on Saturday.
To reach the quarterfinals, the Cavaliers defeated Ravenscroft for the third time this season. After a slow start, DA led the Ravens by four points at halftime. However, senior Molly Hunter’s tenacious defense led to multiple Ravens turnovers and quick DA points, allowing the Cavs to take the first significant lead in the second half. A pair of late 3-pointers by junior Joelle Davis eventually helped seal the 42–31 win.
Ninth-grader McKenzie Graves led DA with 21 points, five assists and six steals. Junior Kendall Harris controlled the boards on the defensive end with seven rebounds and added 12 points.
The Cavaliers had a quick turnaround, hitting the road to Georgia less than 24 hours later for Saturday’s matchup with Rabun Gap. Trailing 14-8 after the first quarter, back-to-back buckets from Harris closed the gap at the start of the second quarter. The Eagles’ balanced offense was difficult to stop, though, and the Cavs fell 53–38. Harris and Davis led the Cavs’ offense with 17 and 15 points, respectively. Graves chipped in with two points, four rebounds and seven assists.
The Cavs closed out the season with a 14–9 record and the team’s best finish in the playoffs since 2016.
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.
- 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.