Sports

Fall Mountain, Stevens advance to quarterfinals in girl’s soccer 

By DAN BARILE 

Eagle Times Correspondent 
 

Girls Soccer 

No. 7 Fall Mountain 2, No. 10 Conant 0 

Mariella Tsitsionis scored both goals on penalty shots to help Fall Mountain advance to the Division 3 quarterfinals.  

“We came up against a very determined opponent and it was a classic, close playoff encounter,” Fall Mountain Head Coach George Tsitsonis said. “Our girls responded well in the second half. We controlled play after halftime and made fantastic choices when in possession. That sustained pressure eventually led to two clear penalty decisions. The girls displayed wonderful effort and fight throughout. I’m so proud of them.”  

Tsitsonis added, “Addey Royce was superb in the midfield while Suzie Tiebout and Charlotte Reilly were dangerous on the wing. The backline of Skyelar Blanchard, Clara Stewart, Maddy Hawkins, and Emma Putnam gave nothing away throughout the 80 minutes. Kendal Cote was big in goal with seven saves to earn the shutout.” 

Fall Mountain (12-5) is set to square-off at second-seeded Raymond (15-1-1) in the quarterfinals on Friday. 

No. 5 Stevens 5, No. 12 Monadnock 0 

Stevens cruised to its seventh straight shutout victory during the preliminary round of the Division 3 playoffs.  

Payton Ferland scored three times for the Cardinals, who also received goals from Alexis Castaneda and Zoey Friesen. Faith Norton, Ella Muenzer, and Ferland each had assists, and Audrina Pelton earned her 11th shutout of the season in goal.  

Stevens will travel to Contoocook on Friday for a matchup with the fourth-seeded Hopkinton Hawks. Hopkinton (14-2-1) earned a 1-0 victory over Stevens (14-3) earlier this fall.  

Volleyball 

Fall Mountain 3, ConVal 2 

LANGDON, N.H. — Fall Mountain finished the regular season on a high note, earning a 3-2 victory over ConVal on senior night in Langdon.  

“It was huge for us as they are one of the stronger teams in the state and we’ve never beaten them before,” Fall Mountain Head Coach Missie Swift said.  

Despite falling 12-25 in the first set, Fall Mountain quickly regrouped to even the match at one with a 25-18 advantage in the second set.  

The Wildcats fell behind again after dropping the third set (22-25), but they managed to even things up at two following a 25-18 edge in the fourth set.  

In the fifth and final set, Fall Mountain put forth an impressive display to secure a 15-8 win. 

“I think the game was completely about net control and defense,” Swift said. “We made some adjustments, our middles managed to get control of the net, and we just played better defense than they did.”   

Swift added, “Eden Haynes was huge for us in this game. She had 24 service points, four aces, five kills, a block, and eight digs.”  

Some other top performers for the Wildcats included Maddie Wilke (12 points, three aces, seven kills, seven very big blocks, and three digs), Maebel Dussault (11 points, two aces, seven kills, and 17 digs), and Cora Buswell (five points and 16 digs). Jordyn Cheney and Avery Pelow also combined for 16 assists.  

Fall Mountain finished the regular season with a 10-8 record after winning its final three games. The Wildcats earned the 13th-seed in the Division 2 playoffs and will travel to face 4th-seeded Oyster River in its preliminary round playoff game.