They played against each other in high school. Now former Lakes Region rivals Lexi Colpack and Cassie Contigiani are spinning double plays together, and rooming together, at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine.
Both were shortstops in high school, Contigiani at Belmont and Colpack at Franklin, and both were 2015 First Team Division III selections. Contigiani has moved to second base at Thomas while Colpack, who was the D-III Player of the Year last year, has stayed at shortstop.
“They both have good range and good speed,” Thomas Coach Terry Parlin said. “They have very different personalities, but they decided to room together and I think they definitely help each other out.”
Colpack was named the North Atlantic Conference Rookie of the Year on Wednesday, as well as being a Second Team All-NAC selection. Colpack led Thomas in OPS (.994) and stolen bases (10), was second in batting average (.383), on-base percentage (.475) and slugging (.519) and was third in RBI (19).
“She’s a real hard worker and she’s been on high gear every minute since she’s been here, in practice and everything else,” said Parlin, who was named the 2016 NAC Coach of the Year. “We really love her personality and everything about her. We’ve been raving about her all year and we really were hoping that she would be the Rookie of the Year. There were quite a few candidates, but I was real happy when I saw that announcement yesterday.”
Colpack has hit leadoff for Thomas all season. Parlin said he’d like to move her down in the lineup so she can drive in more runs, but, “she’s the one in our lineup who makes things happen. If she doesn’t get on, it seems like the team doesn’t get on, so we left her in the leadoff spot.”
The Terriers went 16-17 in their regular season, including a 9-3 mark in conference. They earned the No. 2 seed in the NAC Championship Tournament and will face New England College at noon on Friday at Castleton University in Castleton, Vt., in their opening game of that double-elimination tournament.
Parlin knows Colpack is hungry for the postseason.
“Her desire is another thing,” Parlin said. “She said right from the beginning, ‘I’m going to help you win a conference championship.’ I like that attitude. Whether we win or not is a different story, but at least we’ve got a shot at it.”
Contigiani is already in her second athletic season at Thomas. She was the leading scorer for the women’s soccer team this fall with 17 points (six goals, five assists) to lead the Terriers to a 7-9 record.
“Usually I don’t like recruiting two-sport athletes, but I figure if you’re a two-sport athlete and you start in both sports, it’s okay,” Parlin said. “And (Contigiani) is a good enough athlete that she’s been able to do that.”
She has, however, struggled to hit college pitching (7-for-43 this season), so Parlin has pulled her out of the hitting lineup while leaving her glove in the field.
“She probably spent more time with soccer than she has with softball, and that’s why I think it might take her a little longer to get into the hitting part of it,” Parlin said. “But she’s definitely a strong kid, fast, very athletic, and I think as time passes she’ll be in the hitting lineup. She makes good contact, doesn’t strike out often, she just needs to work on a little technique and she’ll be fine.”
The New England College men’s lacrosse team will play in the NAC Championship on Friday. The top-seeded Pilgrims (12-6) beat Lyndon State, 23-3, in Wednesday’s semifinal and will face No. 2 Castleton in the final at 5:30 p.m. on Friday at NEC’s Don Melander Field.
“We are very excited about taking care of business today and earning a spot in the championship,” NEC Coach Jedd Brown said after the semifinal win. “It will be a short turnaround, but we are focused on Castelton and putting together a plan to bring home a championship.”
NEC and Castleton met on April 20 with the Pilgrims claiming an 11-10 overtime win after Sean Largay scored with just 2.9 seconds to go in OT. Largay and Skyler Saunders lead NEC with 86 points, but right behind them is Matt Richard with 84. Richard, a sophomore attack, is a John Stark graduate from Weare. He has a team-high 46 assists to go along with 38 goals.
And right behind Richard on NEC’s scoring list is another John Stark product, freshman attack Daniel Medvetz. Medvetz, who is from Henniker, has 33 points (23 goals, 10 assists) in 17 appearances off the bench this season.
The University of New Hampshire’s Cowell Stadium will see its last event on Saturday when the UNH football team plays its annual Blue-White Game to conclude spring practice. The new Wildcat Stadium, which is on the same site as Cowell, will officially open for the football home opener on Sept. 10 against the College of Holy Cross.
The Wildcats released some news before the game when they announced their 2016 captains on Thursday – cornerback Casey DeAndrade, quarterback Adam Riese and linebacker Ryan Farrell. All three will be seniors next year.
There is no admission to the spring game. If you can’t make it, a free video stream will be available on unhwildcats.tv.
(Tim O’Sullivan can be reached at 369-3341, tosullivan@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @tosullivan20)