D10 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.SUNDAY, MAY 15 , 2022
High SchoolsBY AARON CREDEURIn the post-match huddle after
they captured another Mid-Atlan-
tic Athletic Conference title, the
Sidwell Friends boys’ tennis play-
ers didn’t talk about the matches
they just won. Instead, they remi-
nisced about the ones they lost.
After a rocky start to the season
that featured injuries and several
high-profile losses against top
teams in the nation, the Quakers
on Saturday took turns reflecting
on how those obstacles made
them stronger. They finished by
chanting the motto that helped
bring them here: “Grit and grind.”
Sidwell swept Potomac School,
7-0, for its third consecutive MAC
banner, this one on the indoor
courts at the Southeast Tennis and
Learning Center in Washington.
Replaying the rest of the season
made the moment more resonant.The Quakers — now ranked 1 0th
nationally by Universal Tennis —
suffered a tough loss to Gonzaga
early in the season. The real cruci-
ble came when the team traveled to
Chattanooga, Tenn., over spring
break to play No. 1 McCallie School
and No. 21 Westminster School (At-
lanta). Sidwell won only one of its
14 individual matches and endured
several injuries.
“Going through something
hard together is a lot more power-
ful than just winning because I
think you learn a lot more from the
losses,” sophomore Michael Yao
said.
Yao helped clinch the victory
Saturday, winning his match
against Potomac School’s Andrew
Mu, 6-1, 6-2.
Sidwell Coach Logan West said
those early losses were crucial to
the Quakers’ ensuing success.
“My goal was not to go unde-feated,” West said. “If we go unde-
feated, we will have ran the gaunt-
let. The goal is to play the best, to
try to beat the best. And that’s
what gets us ready for the end of
the season.”
For senior Rahul Prakash,
Sidwell’s wavering journey to the
top mirrored his own high school
career. After being cut from the
team his freshman year, he spent
his time off during the pandemic
practicing to earn his spot in the
varsity lineup.
That all culminated in a power-
ful performance at No. 2 singles, in
which he beat Alex Zhou, 6-1, 6-2.
“[Coach] basically said: ‘You
have a choice you can make. You
can either let this define you, or
you can go out, train hard on JV,
train hard in the offseason and you
can come back being a completely
different player,’ ” Prakash said. “It
was probably, like, the biggestturning point in my life because
tennis is a huge part of my life....
And now I’m here, and I’m so
happy to be playing No. 2 singles
on a nationally ranked team. It’s
better than I could have ever imag-
ined.”
Playing at his first and last MAC
tournament, Prakash said he ben-
efited from the energy his team
provided. It was a detail height-
ened by a last-minute change to
the indoor venue, where team-
mates played alongside each other
on a row of courts and their cheers
echoed throughout the building.
“You just have to have lots of
[chemistry], and that’s what we do.
We’re just loud,” senior Neal Gupta
said after he won his No. 1 doubles
match. “It’s so fun to just be, like,
behind your teammates the whole
time, just screaming. So in a sport
that’s usually individual, it’s just
really fun to be a part of a team.”MAC TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPQuakers turn their setbacks into late-season success
BY JACOB RICHMANPitcher Steven Jungers leaped
from the mound for the second
time in a matter of minutes and
yelled toward his Gonzaga team-
mates.
Tasked with closing out a sea-
son-saving victory for the Eagles
in Game 2 of the Washington
Catholic Athletic Conference
baseball championship series, the
senior recorded back-to-back
strikeouts and then induced a
groundball to help Gonzaga pre-
vail, 5-3, and tie the three-game
series with St. John’s.
Game 3 is at 1 p.m. Sunday at
Nationals Youth Baseball Acad-
emy in Southeast Washington.
“I’ve kind of put on a persona
this year where I get really fired
up when anything [like that] hap-
pens,” Jungers said. “And that’s
happened a lot this year.”
It was a major victory for a
team making its first appearance
in the WCAC championship se-
ries in more 20 years. And unlike
in Gonzaga’s 9-3 loss Friday, the
Eagles kept a high-powered Ca-
dets offense quiet in the late in-
nings.
Second-seeded St. John’s (22-7)
got on the board first, capitalizing
on errors by fifth-seeded Gonzaga
(16-12), and extended its lead to
3-0 in the third inning on a hit
from first baseman Flynn How-
ard.
Even with the shaky start, Gon-
zaga pitcher Bryson Moore recov-
ered, allowing just one hit in his
next three innings.
“These guys continue to fight
when they’re backed into a cor-
ner,” Eagles Coach Chad Carroll
said. “Even when we go down
three runs, the fight never stops
with these boys.”
Marcus LeClair, a Virginia
commit and one of the “best natu-
ral hitters around,” according to
Carroll, got the offense going.
LeClair rocketed a pitch from Ben
Thomason for a home run to put
Gonzaga on the board. The junior
designated hitter finished 3 for 3.
“For him to come out and play
like this today, it’s great for the
team and even better for him, for
his self-confidence,” teammate
Nick Morabito said.
The Eagles scored three runs in
the bottom of the fifth inning —
Jake Gupton, Joseph Zorc and
LeClair had hits, and base run-
ning was responsible for the rest
— to take their first lead of the
series.
Moore would get just one more
inning on the mound, and after
walking the first batter in the top
of the sixth, he retired the next
three. As Moore struck out Adam
Troch — who had reached base
his previous three at-bats — he,
too, leaped off the mound in ex-
citement.
One win separates Gonzaga
from its first WCAC title since- The Cadets, meanwhile,
have won the past six champion-
ships.
“St. John’s has been here a long
time,” Jungers said. “It’s time to
take them down.”
WCAC BASEBALL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES
Eagles rally past Cadets,
force a decisive Game 3
TOMMY GILLIGAN FOR THE WASHINGTON POSTGonzaga’s Steven Jungers held off St. John’s to close out the win. “I
get really fired up when anything [like that] happens,” he said.
GONZAGA 5,
ST. JOHN’S 3BY KYLE MELNICKWhile attending St. Stephen’s/
St. Agnes as a seventh grader,
Iman Haddad was seeking a
spring sport when her mother,
Rebecca, had a suggestion.
“I think St. Stephen’s is really
good at lacrosse,” she said. “You
should just try it out, see if you like
it.”
Haddad soon became enamored
with playing goalkeeper. After St.
Stephen’s/St. Agnes’s 10-9 win over
Stone Ridge on Saturday after-
noon, the senior’s final play will be
remembered in the program’s lore.
With the Saints leading by a
goal with just over a minute re-
maining in the IndependentSchool League AA division cham-
pionship game, Stone Ridge at-
tempted a point-blank shot that
seemed destined to send the game
into overtime. Haddad saved it,
securing St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes’s
22nd ISL title in the 23 seasons the
league has maintained records.
After the coronavirus forced the
cancellation of the past two ISL
postseasons, Haddad and her
teammates left their legacies on
the D.C. area’s most accomplished
program.
“I was just like, ‘Don’t let them
score. You have to stop the ball,’ ”
Haddad said at Potomac School in
McLean. “My mind went black for
a little bit. I glanced over at the
clock, and there were three sec-
onds left, and I was like, ‘Oh, my
God, we won this game.’ ”
The start of this season was
uncharacteristic for St. Stephen’s/
St. Agnes (19-4), but the frequentnational power enters next week’s
Virginia Independent Schools
Athletic Association playoffs hav-
ing won 15 of its past 16 games.
The beginning of Saturday’s
game was also unusual: The Saints
fell behind 3-0. Midfielder Emmy
Pascal looked up to St. Stephen’s/
St. Agnes players when she was in
middle school, and with a chance
to continue their tradition, the
senior scored four goals in the first
half’s final 14 minutes to give the
Saints a 5-3 halftime edge.
“There’s definitely a lot of pres-
sure, especially on the three re-
turning starters from last year,”
Pascal said. “There was a lot of
pressure to lead the team and just
pick up where we left off last year.
But honestly, I think that the pres-
sure only made us rise to the occa-
sion.”
Stone Ridge (16-7) continued to
test St. Stephen’s/St. Agnes, seiz-ing a 9-8 lead with 6:07 remaining.
Saints attacker Ella Webb scored
about two minutes later, and with
2:19 to play, the senior attacked
from the left wing and bounced
the ball into the goal to reclaim St.
Stephen’s/St. Agnes’s lead for
good.
When Webb began attending
the Alexandria private school in
fifth grade, she never expected to
be a leader for the powerhouse.
Instead, she focused on small im-
provements for a chance to con-
tribute.
“I wouldn’t want it any other
way,” Webb said. “I’m so happy
that I get to be a part of something
like this.”Episcopal wins A division
In the A division championship
game, also in McLean, Episcopal
upset top-seeded National Ca-
thedral, 14-13, in overtime.ISL GIRLS’ LACROSSE AA FINALHaddad’s clutch save keeps Saints’ tradition aliveST. STEPHEN’S/SA 10,
STONE RIDGE 9BY VARUN SHANKAROn May 3, a day after she felt
fatigued while pitching for Poto-
mac School, Yanna Bravewolf
tested positive for the coronavi-
rus. So after taking more than a
week off, she spent the past two
days working out on a local high
school’s turf field, trying to get
back to her team for Saturday’s
Independent School League AA
softball championship.
She already had missed two
games, one of them in this ISL
tournament. These workouts
were a test — for herself and for
her school’s athletic trainer — to
ensure no effects of her illnessremained.
After getting the go-ahead Fri-
day night to rejoin her team,
Bravewolf led off Saturday’s game
against Flint Hill. She drew a
walk, stole second base and then
scored on a double. The Panthers
jumped out early in Alexandria
and pummeled the Huskies, 15-0,
in a four-inning mercy-rule victo-
ry for the league crown.
“I just was missing [my team]
so much while I was in quaran-
tine, and I was just envisioning
the day I would come back and be
able to give them all a hug,” said
Bravewolf, who played first base
Saturday. “This team is so special
to me, and I’m going to be so sad
when I leave.... Today was defi-
nitely my favorite moment of the
week.”
Potomac (17-1) finished with
the best conference record andwon the tournament title — the
first time it accomplished both in
the same season since 2005. The
tournament victory is the team’s
sixth and first since 2019. The
Panthers’ last three tournament
championship victories have all
come against the Huskies (9-5).
This one came without Coach
Wayne Loving, who found himself
in an unusual place during a game
— at home.
Loving also recently tested pos-
itive for the coronavirus and had
to support his team from afar. He
spent the contest refreshing the
GameChanger app for play-by-
play updates.
“Time will tell,” Loving said
over the phone before the game
when asked how he would man-
age his nerves without having his
usual activities of pitch-calling
and third base coaching to dis-tract him.
The early lead and his team’s
dominance quieted any worry.
“It was very relaxing,” he said
afterward. “After getting three
runs in the first inning and a few
more in the second, it was easy to
watch.”
The Panthers will begin the Vir-
ginia Independent Schools Ath-
letic Association playoffs Tuesday.Maret wins ISL A title
Maret shut down Stone Ridge,
6-0, to win the ISL softball A
division championship behind a
strong pitching performance by
junior CJ Roy, who finished with
10 strikeouts in a complete game.
“Came out strong and finished
strong,” Coach Janet Reed said.
“We’re excited to go into AA [next
year] and compete with the up-
per-league teams.”ISL SOFTBALL AA FINALResilient Panthers dominate HuskiesPOTOMAC SCHOOL 15,
FLINT HILL 0SCOTT TAETSCH FOR THE WASHINGTON POST
“This team is so special to me,” said Yanna Bravewolf, who returned from a bout with the coronavirus to help her Panthers win the title.BY MICHAEL ERRIGOAfter nearly three hours of
sprawling and sometimes sloppy
baseball, the Mid-Atlantic Ath-
letic Conference championship
ended with the most fundamen-
tal of the sport’s successes: back-
to-back base hits.
In their first at-bats of extra
innings, the Maret Frogs deliv-
ered two hard-hit balls up the
middle to win in a walk-off
against Potomac School, deliver-
ing a resounding conclusion to a
wild 10-9 game.
“A lot of ups and downs,” Frogs
starting pitcher Andrew Catron
said. “There was a couple of
innings where maybe we didn’t
have our best stuff, but we always
picked each other up.”
Both the Frogs and the Pan-
thers had clutch hits over the
course of the long and winding
contest, but neither earned most
of its runs by stringing together
base knocks. Instead, the crowd
at St. Albans in Northwest Wash-
ington was treated to a roller
coaster of walks, aggressive base
running, passed balls and the
occasional errant throw.
The Frogs (20-5) looked as if
they might run away with the
game early, jumping out to a 4-0
lead. Their run production never
slowed, but the Potomac bats
also woke up and the Panthers
(13-9) led at 5-4 and then again at
9-7.
After Maret leveled things at
nine in the bottom of the fifth
inning, the tone of the game
shifted. What had been a loose
and free-flowing affair was sud-
denly tense and microscopic as
the players realized every play
could decide a championship.
In the bottom of the eighth,
senior catcher Robbie Engelberg
led things off for Maret. Part of
him wanted to swing for the
fences, but with the heart of the
order behind him, Engelberg
knew he just had to get on base to
put his team in good shape. He
ripped a grounder up the heart of
the diamond and watched from
first as teammate Ben Pew strode
to the plate.
Pew worked the count and
lined a base hit to center field.
Engelberg came barreling
toward third and, just as the
center fielder bobbled the ball,
got the green light from Coach
Antoine Williams to head home.
He crossed with ease, and a mob
of celebratory teammates caught
up to Pew moments later.
“[Coach Williams] was waving
me the whole way, but I was
going no matter what,” Engel-
berg said with a laugh.
The Frogs also won a share of
the conference’s regular season
title this spring, their first time
claiming an outright MAC cham-
pionship since 2013.
“Today I saw what I’ve seen
from this team all year,” Williams
said. “They battled. They were
down, but they were never out of
it.... I’ll remember this group
for its work ethic. They were
always ready to embrace the
moment.”MAC BASEBALL FINAL
Frogs string together hits
late to claim wild victory
MARET 10, POTOMAC SCHOOL 9 (8)