A run of three straight Middlesex League girls soccer titles and two straight undefeated league seasons ended for Winchester last year. But the Sachems don't expect any sympathy from their opponents this season. "We play in a challenging league, and every match that we play in seems to be a hard one," coach Chris Scanlon said. "We tend to be the team that everyone hates. Whatever level they're at they give us their best shot." The Sachems graduated six starters from last year team, which finished 13-7 and lost in the Division 1 North quarterfinals, but return 18 players, including both …

If new Winchester High School boys soccer coach Kambiz Vatan has a question about his team, he doesn't need to look far for someone to ask. Paul Austin, who held the post for 11 years before resigning in the spring, is Vatan's teammate in the New England Over-the-Hill Soccer League. Vatan and Austin are also both coaches at Arlington High School — Vatan is a math teacher and boys volleyball coach at the school, while Austin will lead the girls soccer program. But Vatan might not need any advice about his new surroundings. He previously spent seven years at Winchester as an assistant girls …

Winchester let a winnable match escape its grasp when it lost to Lowell Catholic 17-25, 25-21, 25-15, 25-21 midway through its first varsity season this spring. But that made the rematch at Winchester even sweeter. The Sachems (3-8) won the second meeting 25-19, 25-23, 25-23, providing a glimpse of how successful the program can be in the future. "The guys realized we might have missed an opportunity playing there to win, but being able to come back and to beat them at home was certainly a highlight because it showed the improvement throughout the year," coach John Fleming said. "They saw …

After ending last season with a winning record (11-10), the Winchester baseball team had aspirations of challenging for a league title this year. The Sachems wound up losing their first four games and could never fully recover, but coach David Blanchard said it was still a good year. "From a record standpoint we were a little disappointed," Blanchard said. "Unfortunately we let a few games we all thought we could win slip through our fingers. But in the end we had good young men and coachable guys that made it an enjoyable season." After opening with losses to Medford, Reading, Stoneham and …

After improving from one win to six wins last season, the Winchestersoftball team took another step in the right direction this year,finishing 8-12 despite a young roster that included freshman pitcherRachael Smith, sophomore pitcher/shortstop Catherine Pitts andsophomore catcher Emmalee Morton. "Overall it was a pretty successful season," coach Steve Swymer said."We're a young team, and our goal this year was to be more competitive with the bigger teams in the league and we did that." The Sachems started off with a bang, winning four of its first sixgames. They handed Lexington its first …

Winchester was disappointed when a 6-5 loss to Hingham ended its boys lacrosse season in the Division 2 East quarterfinals, but it did show how far the Sachems had come. Hingham had defeated Winchester 14-6 in April to drop the Sachems' record to 2-4 before Winchester came back to win 12 of its next 13 games. With only five seniors and a long stretch of road games to begin the season, Winchester got off to a slow start, but the youngsters matured quickly. "Honestly we had some incredible assistant coaches who were very patient and we made a conscious effort to distribute the playing time," …

The Winchester girls lacrosse team may have entered the 2011 season as defending Division 2 North champions, but it was in name only. The Sachems graduated eight seniors, including all-time leading scorer Lauren Sullivan and three other college-bound players. Only four starters returned, and one tore her ACL 10 minutes into the season. Beyond that, three new starters had only one year of experience playing the sport, the goalie was untested, and the Sachems were pounded by Andover in their first scrimmage. But despite a difficult array of injuries and illnesses — Michaela Chiuccariello, Kate …

When Winchester boys tennis team beat North Andover 5-0 to claim the Division 2 North sectional title, there was a small celebration, but not an overwhelming outpouring of joy. "The biggest thing was us still being hungry for the (state) title," Sachems coach Tobe Okoye said. "That was step 1 and now we need to complete the next step." After losing in the Division 2 state championship last season for the first time in five years, the Winchester boys tennis team had its sights set on reclaiming the championship trophy. It accomplished that goal, defeating Sharon 5-0 in the state championship …

Winchester girls tennis coach Paul Sughrue, who has been around the tennis program for 35 years, said that first singles player Abby Shewalter, who is headed to the Naval Academy, is arguably the best Sachems player ever. Alex Criss, who will play for Trinity next season, was the rare college-level player who played second singles for her high school. The No. 1 doubles team of senior Katy McKeough and her sophomore sister Karen won a state title in the individual doubles tournament. Then there's No. 3 singles player Chloe Georgaklis, a sophomore, and the No. 2 doubles team of senior Maddy …

Winchester spring sports teams went 2-1 in state title matches this week. The girls tennis team continued its dominance and the boys tennis team avenged its finals loss from last year, while the girls lacrosse team fell just short. Here are the details from the final week of the 2010-11 Winchester athletics season: Girls tennis: The Sachems (22-0) won their 114th straight match and fifth straight state title with a 5-0 win over Hopkinton Wednesday at Lexington High School. Winchester didn't drop a set in the Division 2 state championship match. Abby Shewalter won 6-3, 6-0 at first singles, …

The girls lacrosse and boys tennis teams are in the sectional finals, the girls tennis team stayed unbeaten and the boys lacrosse team saw its season end.Here's a review of the past week in Winchester athletics:Girls lacrosse: The third-seeded Sachems (17-2-2) beat Triton 18-7 in the quarterfinals and defeated Weston 14-10 in the semifinals. The Sachems won the MIAA North Division II Championship, defeating No. 1 seed Ipswich, 16-6. Emy Stratton scored four goals and Meg Hennessey had three goals and three assists against No. 6 Triton on Monday. Winchester had nine-goal leads at halftime of …

The Winchester girls and boys lacrosse teams both won their opening games in the MIAA tournament by double digits, while the baseball allowed 20 runs in its last game. Here are the details:Girls lacrosse:  Megan Hennessey, Kate Wendell and McKenzie Tucci all had hat tricks and six other Sachems scored as No. 3 Winchester opened the Division 2 North playoffs with a 17-7 win over No. 14 Manchester Essex on Thursday. The Sachems (15-2-2) will now host No. 6 Triton (13-6) on Monday at 4 p.m. The other goal scorers were Emy Stratton, Maggie Connolly, Sarah Ohnigian, Michaela Chiuccariello, Talene …

The regular season is coming to a close. The boys and girls lacrosse teams are storming into the postseason, while the baseball and softball teams were unable to achieve the .500 record necessary for qualify for the state tournament. Here's a recap of the past week in Winchester sports: Girls lacrosse: Winchester (14-2-2) earned the No. 3 seed in the Division 2 North tournament and will face No. 14 Manchester Essex in the first round Thursday at Knowlton Stadium. If the Sachems win, their quarterfinal opponent will be either No. 6 Triton or No. 11 Newburyport, which meet Wednesday at 3 p.m. …

There aren't many goals scored when the Winchester and Lexington lacrosse teams get together, but it's exciting nonetheless. The Sachems tied the game in the final minute on a goal from Tyler Calnan, assisted by Andrew Laugharn, but Lexington won the ensuing faceoff and Conor Henrie scored the winner for the Minutemen with seven seconds left. The two teams had each lost once in the Middlesex League this season and were both crowned co-champions, so Thursday's game was just for bragging rights. Winchester had lost to Lexington 7-3 last month. The Sachems had been 3-0 in one-goal games until …

The Winchester boys lacrosse team entered the season with the goal of winning the Middlesex League. It didn't get off to a good start, losing its first league game to Lexington (and going 2-4 overall), but the Sachems have since won their last five league games. This week saw Winchester (7-4) crush Watertown 15-2 and win at Reading 6-5 in overtime. The Watertown win on Wednesday was the third league victory in which the Sachems allowed two goals or less (they also beat Melrose 14-2 and Belmont 7-1). Sophomore captain Chris O'Connell scored the winner in overtime against Reading, which entered…

It's not enough for the Winchester boys tennis team to win matches — coach Tobe Okoye wants to see improvement, too. "If we win 3-2 we want to win 4-1 next time. If we win 4-1 then we want to win 5-0," Okoye said. The coach should be happy with the team's improvement against Reading. Though the Sachems won 5-0 in the first week of the season and again in this week's rematch, Winchester put up a stronger showing this time. Four of the five matches were won in straight sets — Christian Boulanger defeated Tyler Bova 6-0, 7-5 in first singles; Ben Davis defeated Alec Tzianabos 6-4, 6-3 in second …

Abby Shewalter, Alex Criss, Katy McKeough and Maddy Mangan, the four seniors on the Winchester girls tennis team, can make a claim that very few high school athletes across the country can make — they've never lost a high school match. The Sachems (8-0) continued their remarkable run with a 5-0 win over Woburn, the program's 100th victory in a row. The streak, which spans four state championships, started before any of the current players were even in high school. "It speaks mostly just to the talent that we've been fortunate to have on the team," coach Paul Sughrue said. "We traditionally …

It might have been spring break at Winchester, but there was no vacation for the Winchester girls lacrosse team. The Sachems faced state champion Framingham and another Division I opponent, King Philip and kept their unbeaten start alive. Winchester (6-0-1) overcame a 7-1 deficit against Framingham to tie 14-14 and followed that with a 17-11 win over King Philip. "I felt like it was a big week and I actually feel really good because we had some players missing because of injury and I was happy some other girls stepped up," coach Suzanne Ontso said. "You hope you won't miss a beat but you …

The boys hockey team was coming off two straight appearances in the Super 8 tournament and the girls hockey team had just won the 2010 MIAA Girls Division II state championship. Not surprisingly, neither team reached such heights this season, but there were still some great moments — Michaela Chiuccariello became the girls program's all-time leading scorer, while the boys team advanced farther than any other Winchester team this winter, reaching the semifinals of the Division 1 North tournament. Here's a look back at both seasons:Boys hockey: The Sachems needed to replace two-time Middlesex …

The Winchester wrestling program may not have had the dominant talent it's used to having, but the Sachems still won each league match by at least 25 points this season to claim their 17th Middlesex League title in 30 years. "We weren't a state championship power like in the past, but everybody gave 100 percent and that's all you can ask as a coach," coach Larry Tremblay said. "I never thought that we would dominate the league like we did." Despite the heavy losses from graduation after the 2010 season, Tremblay didn't back down from scheduling tough out-of-state competition again this year…