WEST NEWBURY — As soon as the MIAA playoff brackets were released, the Pentucket girls lacrosse team knew that it was a possibility.
Win two games, and it’s most likely a rematch against CAL rival Ipswich.
Well, just one week later, the date is set … and it’s going to be a war.
On a beautiful Tuesday night in West Newbury, No. 7 Pentucket pulled away in the second half to beat visiting No. 10 Nipmuc, 18-11, in the Division 4 Round of 16. Elite scorers Ella Palmer and Cat Colvin each poured in six goals to pace the offense, while junior draw ace Katherine Wisniewski won a stunning 19 controls in a dominant performance. And it’s a victory that sends the Panthers on to the quarterfinals, where a trip over to No. 2 Ipswich — the Div. 4 state runner-up the past two years — awaits some time this weekend.
“We’re so excited to get another opportunity,” said Palmer, a senior University of Tampa commit. “I feel like when we played (Ipswich) earlier in the season, it just wasn’t our game. So, we’re ready to put everything we’ve been working on throughout the season on the field against them. We’re really excited.”
In truth, Pentucket (17-5) has already cleared a lot of hurdles this year.
Top among them being the program earning its first victory over Newburyport since 2015, as well as taking the defending Division 1 state champion, Central Catholic, to overtime. Then Tuesday’s victory was also a big one for the Panthers, and particularly for the team’s nine-person senior class that wanted to make it back to the Elite 8 after falling in the Round of 16 last year.
But being able to beat Ipswich, that would be something else entirely.
You’d have to go back to 2010 to find the last time that Pentucket tamed the Tigers on the field, so a victory this weekend would break an agonizing 15-year-long drought. Way back on April 7th this spring, in just the third game of the season, the Tigers took down the Panthers, 10-5, in the two team’s lone meeting.
“They’re psyched to play (Ipswich) again,” said Pentucket coach Todd Conover. “There’s a lot of things we would have liked to have done differently that first game, so I’m excited to see if we can put those practices we’ve had since then into play.”
Getting there, though, Pentucket had to take care of business against Nipmuc.
Palmer, Colvin and fellow senior Kate Conover (4g, 4a) helped the Panthers build up a 9-3 lead after the first quarter, but senior captain, draw control member and Duke commit Sydney Trout (2g, 1a) went down with an injury late in the frame and didn’t return. The early feeling and hope, though, is that it’s a minor tweak and she’ll be ready to go for Ipswich. But while the Panthers were making some adjustments in her absence, Nipmuc (13-6) would cut it to just 11-7 at halftime.
Jayden Lilburn would lead the Warriors on the day with five goals.
But after the break, Pentucket pulled away.
Colvin, Palmer and Conover handled the offense to push the lead to 17-9 heading into the fourth quarter, and it certainly helped that Wisniewski was winning basically every draw. Then on the other end of the field, Morgan Gallant, Caroline Tedeschi, Kat Flaherty and Allie Gagnon were forcing turnovers, and making sure goalie Carsen Ventola (5 saves) wasn’t seeing too much traffic.
“I just think we kept our composure in the second half, which was the big thing,” said Conover. “We had some players go down in the first, so that took a little bit of our gameplan away. So we sort of fell into a little bit of a lull there in the first half, and I think the girls did a good job of filling in the gaps when we had to switch up the gameplan a little bit.”
And now, everybody knows what’s coming next.
But after Tuesday’s win, there was time for a brief moment of reflection.
For this senior class, which also includes names like Abbie Felzani and Sam Beegan, it’s been quite the playoff rollercoaster. The class made back-to-back Elite 8s up in Division 3 as freshmen and sophomores in 2022 and ’23, but lost by one goal each time to Weston and Foxborough. Then last year moving down to Division 4, they lost to another CAL foe in Hamilton-Wenham in the Sweet 16. So not only would beating Ipswich later this week break a 15-year streak, but it would also — deservedly — give this senior class one Final Four appearance over their impressive careers.
“So proud, honestly,” said Palmer. “Last year we thought we would go further, and then this year we’re just going. This game today, we just wanted to put everything out there. And just being with most of these girls since kindergarten, and now getting to where we are, it’s just awesome to think about the journey.”