The Sports Watch for March 14 - 20

It’s Sunday, and you know what that means. It’s time for the Sports Watch, the fastest three minutes in Weston sports coming your way right now:

Well, the Weston boys tennis team comes storming back this spring after winning the Division 3 state championship, 4-1, over Bromfield last year.

Winning it all was quite a welcome for then-first-year Weston head coach George Conlin, who returns for his second season at the helm and also serves as tennis pro at the Longfellow Club in Wayland. While it’s too early for Conlin to know his full roster and how it will align, the Wildcats have three four-year players intact.

Senior and Dual County League All-Star Will Spector, a first singles standout, will enter the new campaign shining with his last year’s record of 14-2 in tow, his only losses to individual state champion Alex Steinroeder of Concord-Carlisle.

Fellow senior league All-Star Matt Gorelik also returns with a strong game as does senior Jason Mazzella. Gorelik proved versatile, playing first doubles and third singles, while Mazzella shined at second singles. 

Senior Kar Epker, who began last season on junior varsity,  is also back after filling in at second doubles and third singles, the latter for both the second half of last season and the tournament. “He’s really strong at singles, too,” Conlin said.

Juniors Max Legocki and Trevor Sands will add depth. Legocki and Sands played second doubles and third singles, respectively, last season.

Among the younger group, sophomore Ben Spector returns after competing strongly at third singles.

The Wildcats lost two seniors to graduation, Duncan Van Nest and David Borczuk. Van Nest, a DCL All-Star, who served as captain, teamed with Gorelik at first doubles for much of last season. Borczuk was solid at third singles. “I rotated three or four guys at third singles,” Conlin said.

Rounding out the cast so far are Greg Sanda, Akash Agawal, Kian Nowrouzi, David Westerberg, James Stranberg, Sam Rafla, and Jack Renner, who all played on junior varsity last season.

Weston’s toughest competition figures to be Concord-Carlisle, Newton South, Acton Boxborough, Boston Latin, and Westford Academy.

 The Wildcats will open their 17-match regular season slate at home against Waltham on April 13.

On to boys’ lacrosse, and a season removed from an appearance in the MIAA Division 1 semi-finals and with the right mix of returning upperclassmen, the future for the Wildcats looks bright.

After defeating Westwood and Arlington Catholic in the playoffs and coming close to making the state finals, a 7-5 loss to Norwell that closed the postseason run will not let Wildcats down. Weston, which finished 14-2 last year, will have nine seniors and 17 juniors returning in 2011, many of which have been at the varsity level for at least two years.

“Last year was a fun, exciting time and it was a great season for us,” Weston head coach Jim Wilcon said. “The nice thing is that they’re experienced and they played a number of overtime and close games.”

Wilcon said that team chemistry is always different year to year, but the core of this year’s squad has a familiarity with each other’s playing styles. Weston will rely on senior mid fielders Kerry Ecker, Rob Crockett and Greg Cohen, and attack Kyle Nickerson, its four captains, to provide both leadership and strong offensive skill sets this season. Wilcon said the great thing about his captains is how well they complement each other and all add different things to the team.

"Kerry has a strong knowledge of the game and runs our offensive sets, Rob takes our faceoffs and Kyle is a great finisher and one of our leading scorers,” Wilcon said. “We’re also looking forward to having Greg who also plays football, back from injury because he is big, strong and fast.”

Other seniors that Wilcon said will be key contributors are defensive midi Greg Lanzillo, defenseman Nick Littas, goalkeeper Andrew Edelman, attack Paul Donahue, and midi Nick Peacher.

Although there are will be numerous senior starters returning, the success of Weston’s juniors will be vital to its season. Junior goalkeeper Jared Fong, who has been the varsity starter since he was a freshman, will give the Wildcats experience in front of the net. Stephen Iodice and Rob Bennett will lead the Weston defense and Joey Pasquale, an attack, led Weston in scoring last season and Wilcon has high expectations for him this year.

“He put a lot of work into his game during the offseason and I expect big things on the offensive end,” Wilcon said.

Weston will continue its tradition of maintaining a healthy rivalry with Wayland this season, but in Wilcon’s eyes, Concord-Carlisle is the team to beat.  Both of Weston’s losses last year were to C-C.

“The losses were one-goal and two-goal games, so I think we’re on the verge of beating them,” Wilcon said.

Weston will open the regular season at Martha’s Vineyard on April 2 and face Wayland for its first league game on April 5.

Pat Ouelllette contributed to this report.