The Ithaca School tennis packages had been within the midst of their annual spring break journey when the 2020 season was canceled, ending the journey earlier than the Bombers competed of their fifth and last match of the week.
“We went all the way down to Florida and that’s the place our season ended,” Chris Hayes ’16, head coach of the lads’s and ladies’s tennis groups, mentioned. “It was surreal to say the least.”
Hayes mentioned the groups had been wanting to return to this custom in 2022 after the abrupt finish to the final journey. Throughout this 12 months’s spring break from March 12 to twenty, a number of Bombers groups returned to the annual custom by touring to compete. The school’s baseball, softball, males’s lacrosse, and males’s and ladies’s tennis groups traveled south for the spring break. Each tennis groups performed 4 matches in Hilton Head, South Carolina, and the lads’s lacrosse group performed a pair of video games in Memphis, Tennessee. The baseball group performed within the Russmatt Invitational in the course of the break, competing in seven contests in Florida. The softball group additionally traveled round North Carolina to play 4 doubleheaders earlier than taking part in two video games in Salisbury, Maryland.
The school’s spring sports activities groups had been capable of play a restricted season in Spring 2021, going through solely native and convention opponents. This season, the school’s groups had been allowed to go down South once more for a spring break journey.
For the athletes and coaches, this was an expertise that many have both missed out on or skilled for the primary time. Freshman Anna Cornell, pitcher on the softball group, traveled South for her first time with the group. Cornell mentioned that the thrill surrounding the group had been increase and that just a few upperclassmen shared their experiences.
“The upperclassmen have expressed the affect of the journey from a group bonding standpoint along with the athletic alternative itself,” Cornell mentioned. “With this being the primary spring break for over half of the gamers on our roster, we’re hopeful that spring break will permit us to proceed to outline our group values and decide what units ‘Workforce 54’ other than earlier groups.”
Every of Ithaca School’s groups touring South confronted unfamiliar competitors. Jeff Lengthy, head coach of the lads’s lacrosse group, mentioned a majority of its focus had been on the primary 5 video games, and it had began the season with a 4–1 report earlier than the break.
“We’re shifting gears and we’re beginning to put collectively scouting studies of the 2 groups we’re taking part in,” Lengthy mentioned. “It’s a brand new territory, new groups and it’s type of thrilling from that perspective.”
The boys’s lacrosse group gained each of its video games in Tennessee. The South Hill squad defeated Birmingham-Southern College 18–10 and Rhodes School 16–6. Sophomore attacker John Sramac scored his twenty third objective of the season and junior attacker Jake Erickson earned his twentieth in the course of the journey. The Bombers return to New York with a 6–1 report.
The softball group completed the journey with a 4–6 report, bringing it to five–7 on the season. The Bombers swept Pfeiffer College successful 4–1 and eight–0. The Bombers additionally defeated William Peace School 11–1 in a sequence cut up. The group additionally misplaced each of its video games to Greensboro School and Guilford School.
Whereas heading again to New York, Ithaca School defeated Muhlenberg School 9–0 and misplaced an in depth recreation 3–0 to Salisbury College, which is ranked second within the nation. Cornell struck out 38 batters over 22.2 innings pitched over the break. She additionally threw a one-hitter towards Muhlenberg.
The Bombers males’s tennis group went 2–2 throughout its journey to Hilton Head. The squad defeated Nichols School 7–2 and Webster College 9–0. The group was defeated 6–3 by Washington School and seven–2 towards Asbury College.
The ladies’s tennis group additionally went 2–2 taking part in the identical opponents apart from Webster. The group emphatically defeated Nichols 8–1 and Asbury 7–2. It misplaced shut matches to George Fox College and Washington School, falling 5–4 to each groups.
The Bombers baseball group had a productive journey, 6–1 in the course of the break, which was highlighted by a 3–2 over No. 11 Wheaton School. The membership scored 16 runs on North Park College and the College of Wisconsin-La Crosse successful each video games. The squad additionally defeated Springfield School and Franklin and Marshall School scoring 10 runs in each video games. The membership completed its spring break with a 7–2 victory over Stevenson School.
Though COVID-19 restrictions nonetheless loom over on a regular basis life, Hayes, Lengthy and the groups are cautious and know the significance of athletics groups having the ability to journey prolonged distances as soon as once more.
“While you’re on the market shoveling snow in February and it’s 10 levels, it’s good to have one thing to look ahead to,” Lengthy mentioned. “It has been such a loopy final couple of years and I feel it’s going to be actually particular.”
