As the winter season begins, here’s a look at some of the playoff highlights of teams of the fall season:

Girls Soccer

The girls varsity soccer team finished their regular season with a record of 5-0-3. After beating Haverhill in the first round of the playoffs, the team lost to Central Catholic in the Division 1 North quarterfinals.

Coach Robert Sprague said that he was most proud of the team for persevering even though the loss of various players meant shuffling the team’s lineup and formation.

“Every team has to deal with injuries,” Sprague said. “I think that great teams are mentally tough and can adjust. That’s the type of team we were this fall.”

Sprague believes that the growth his team has achieved will continue to be a part of the team.

“We’re in the process of developing our systems for attacking and defending on the varsity team. It takes time to develop these habits within a program,” Sprague said. “We witnessed the growth as our players matured and gained greater understanding of these systems throughout the past season. I expect that the growth that we witnessed this fall will carry over and improve in 2016.”
Boys Soccer

The boys varsity soccer team finished their regular season with a record of 11-4-3. After beating Billerica and Revere in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the team lost to Medford in the North Sectional semifinals.

According to coach Kyle Beaulieu-Jones, the team’s success began at the beginning of the season.

“We started way back at the Cape, in our preseason tournament there, and the boys really came together pretty well,” Beaulieu-Jones said. “They’re a really close team off the field and that really shows on the field, that they play for each other a lot. So starting early on we knew that they were going to be a close team.”

Beaulieu-Jones said that he believes that the skills the team learned through playing will help them later in life.

“They finally learned how to, when they do get ahead in a game, to keep that lead,” Beaulieu-Jones said. “But also when we have been scored on first, how to fight back, and how to stay in that game and not give up and always have faith that we can come back and win that game. So I think that’s really a characteristic they can use for the rest of their lives, to keep working even though things are maybe down. You can improve and keep going and fight for each other.”

Boys Golf

The boys golf team had a record of 14-1 this season. The team went on to All-States after placing second at Sectionals. This has been the second time in four years that the team made it this far. However, senior Justin Lee expressed his disappointment with the team’s All-State’s performance.

“We just didn’t really close it out at States,” Lee said. “We got seventh, which is a little worse than we expected.”

However, Lee congratulated the team on their focus throughout the season.

“I’m proud of staying consistent. Usually when you’re 14-1, you kind of lose focus, thinking you’re too good. But we stayed focused.

As a graduating player, Lee gave his advice to next year’s team.

“Practice hard, practice more,” he said.

Girls Swim and Dive

The girls swim team had a record of 10-2 this season, finishing third at the Bay State Conference League meet. The team then went on to finish second at South Sectionals. They finished their season coming in fifth at All-States. Along the way, the team broke numerous records.

Coach Jim Stallings said that this year was historic. In addition, he said that he was proud of the team’s dynamic.

“The support they give each other goes well beyond being teammates. The way the girls are you’d never think it was a team, it’s more like a family or as they may call it  a ’sisterhood.’”

As for what he wants to improve on next season, Stallings elaborated on his high hopes for his team.

“Next year we want to be undefeated in the Bay State Conference, win our Conference meet, win South Sectionals and finish with winning or being a finalist at Division 1 States,” Stallings said.

Girls Volleyball

The girls volleyball team had a record this season of 8-8. After beating Madison Park and North Quincy in the playoffs, the team fell to Newton North in the Division 1 Central-East semifinals.

Coach Jim Watson elaborated on the team’s success, saying that all the goals he set for the team have been met.

“My first goal was to develop the girls into a team. I had to make sure that they would be working together,” Watson said. “They all had the talent, but you have to have the togetherness. That was one of the goals I had to achieve. Secondly, I had to find out how many of them had the confidence to make that extra step up to varsity. I had to get them to develop goals for themselves, and that was also met. And the last one was that we had to get this team to playoffs.”

Watson has high hopes for the team next year.

“Because most of the kids are underclassmen, next year we’re going to have an entire varsity experienced team,” Watson said. “They will not even be seniors, so they’re going to have the opportunity to go into two or three years of going to playoffs.”

Girls Cross Country

The girls cross country team rounded out their season with an 8-3 record. The team finished seventh at the Bay State Conference League meet and sixth at the MIAA EMASS championship. According to coach Mike DeYoung, the team’s regular season record ties for their best record in 10 years. The number of girls on the team was also record breaking.

“We had a large group of kids, 34 kids, which is about the biggest team in the last six or seven years, maybe even the last 10 years,” DeYoung said.

DeYoung elaborated on the team’s cohesion.

“I thought we had a very strong team. [We were] well connected, people worked really hard all season. We had a lot of good times, a lot of fun. Even facing some tough things, we overcame them. So those are all some things I think the team can be proud of.”

Boys Cross Country

The boys cross country team had a record of 9-2 this season. The team came third at the Bay State Conference League meet. They also finished fourth at the MIAA EMASS championship, qualifying for the state meet for the first time since 2011. They finished sixth at All-States.

According to coach Mike Glennon, the team didn’t win a Bay State Conference League championship this season because of a strong division.

“Normally in our season our success is measured by winning a league championship, which is not something we did this year,” Glennon said. “It’s a very competitive league.”

According to Glennon, the underclassmen athletes on the team will have big shoes to fill.

“Every single season for us and every single year for us is about doing the best that we can, and it’s all about what athletes we have on any given year,” Glennon said. “We’re a very deep senior laden team this year, so next year will be a year that we have to have people step up to fill in those losses of senior graduation.”