Parts of the field at Smith Vocational appear to look more like swamp lands after steady rains Monday, forcing the postponement of Westfield Tech-Smith Voke.
WESTFIELD – Although Hurricane Florence’s wrath may spare the northeast the brunt of the storm in the coming days, last week’s extreme heat and this week’s soaking rains have local high school sports teams’ and athletic directors’ heads spinning.
The Westfield Technical Academy High School boys soccer team traveled to Smith Vocational only to have the game postponed Monday after heavy rains and pooling water combined to create dangerous playing conditions.
The Southwick-Pope Francis boys soccer contest was also postponed.
In the first five days or so of the fall season, more games (save for volleyball) have been postponed than have been played between Westfield, Westfield Tech, St. Mary’s, Southwick, and Gateway high schools combined.
Water pools up at the Westfield Tech-Smith Voke boys soccer game, forcing yet another postponement in a young season already littered with more than a dozen of them in our coverage area.
New athletic directors at WHS and WTA (Daniel Trudeau), St. Mary’s (Matt Collins), and Southwick (Joe Turmel) have already been challenged to keep up with the frenetic pace, which is already beginning to feel like the beginning of spring season when inclement weather forced cancellations of baseball and softball games more often than not.
Westfield golfers David Tirrell and Colin Scalon braved the elements to shoot a team-low 41 Monday in a match against West Springfield. The Bombers won 167-190.
“For today, that was an outstanding score,” said Westfield coach Chris Strycharz, whose team persevered through cold, wind, and persistent rain.
“The whole team was able to grind it out,” Strycharz said. “Very tough conditions but they battled through it.”
Westfield blanked Central 6-0 in girls soccer action behind scores from Chandler Pedolzky (2 goals), Kaela Mochak (1 goal), Emma Pedolzky (goal), Megan Alverado (goal), and Riley Burns (goal). Maggie Prystowski had two assists, and Emma Pedolzky, Alverado, and Sophie Lewis each had one for the Bombers, who scored five second-half goals.
Adrianna Arona (4 saves) posted a shutout in net for Westfield (3-0).
There were two teams immune and protected from the weather – the Westfield and Southwick girls volleyball teams.
Westfield won its Western League opener over Ludlow 25-19, 25-19, 24-26, 25-18. In that game, Emily Gelinas (26 assists), Tanya Shvyryd (8 kills, 7 digs), Irelis Rodriguez (14 kills, 8 digs), Steph Sgueglia (8 digs, 2 assists), and Maia Kelso (6 kills) delivered superb efforts.
Southwick fell to Putnam in four sets 14-25, 25-21, 24-26, 13-25. Allie Methe (10 digs, 5 aces, 1 kill), Jen Motsko (2 kills, 6 digs, 2 aces), Kayla Andrade (4 assists, 7 digs, 2 aces), and Vicky Burkovskiy (2 blocks) led the Rams.
