For the second season in a row, every eligible Vineyard team qualified for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletics Association tournament. This also marks the first time ever that all spring teams have made the tournament, football and softball coach and former athletic director Donald Herman said. Just three Vineyard teams have missed the MIAA postseason this year.

Tournament play is staggered for the various sports, and while four of the six qualifying teams have yet to play their first game, two have taken on their first-round opponents already. Both lacrosse teams competed earlier this week, with the girls’ team falling 18-11 to 15th-seeded Foxboro last Saturday and the boys taking a close 8-6 loss to 15th-seeded Austin Prep on Tuesday.

Although the boys had a rough second quarter, they were down just 3-2 at the half. Senior Charlie Everett scored three goals, with junior Nick Costello contributing two goals and sophomore Sam Burke notching one. Senior Denver Maciel had two assists, while senior goalie Nelson Dickson stopped 19 of 37 shots and senior Conor Smith again led the defense with seven ground balls.

The team won three away games in five days to qualify for the postseason.

“The kids left everything on the field,” head coach Chris Greene said. “You really can’t ask for anything more; it’s a credit to them to make the adjustments and fight through.”

Down by 12 goals with four and a half minutes on the clock in last Saturday’s first-round tournament game, the girls’ lacrosse team also refused to go down without a fight. The team scored five unanswered goals before time was called, pushing back against their Foxboro opponents until the very end. Senior captain Madison Hughes kicked off the Vineyard scoring in the first minute, with junior Hannah Moore landing a goal on a Jennie Lindland assist not long after. Lindland, fellow junior Taylor Poggi and sophomore Issy Smith contributed key first-half goals as well.

Junior Alayna Hutchinson led team scoring for the season, finishing with 58 goals and 31 assists. Hughes had 52 goals and 30 assists on the season, while Lindland had 45 goals (27 assists) and Poggi 35 (14 assists). Smith scored 32 goals on the season (6 assists). Sarah Alexander, Alex Clark and Mary Ollen proved key to the Vineyard defense in the last half of the season; head coach Betsy Dripps also praised the leadership of senior captains Hughes, Shelby Ferry and four-year goalie April Hargy.

Senior leadership was on display last Friday at the ballfield, as captain Will Stewart threw a complete game shutout against Bourne. The Vineyarders, who earlier this month qualified for the postseason for the first time in 10 years, defeated the Canalmen 3-0 to end the season with a 12-8 record.

Stewart threw 80 pitches total, working himself out of a jam in the third and fifth innings and relying on the support of the steady Vineyard defense to protect the lead.

The Vineyarders put two runs on the board in the bottom of the first, thanks to the bat of junior shortstop Jack Roberts. Roberts would score again in the bottom of the fifth on a Ramon Espino double.

With two outs and the bases loaded in the top of the seventh, senior leftfielder Noah Stobie made a stellar running grab to preserve the shutout and the Vineyard win.

The team is seeded 11th in their bracket, and plays Dover-Sherborne in an away game on Saturday.

“It’s great to have a win going into the playoffs,” Stewart said. “Playoffs are all about who has momentum.”

Perhaps no Vineyard team has more momentum than the boys’ tennis team, who enter the playoffs with a perfect 18-0 record, a first in the program’s history. The boys earned a number one seed in the tournament and received a bye for the first round.

The team eked out a 3-2 away victory over archrivals Cape Cod Academy Saturday. Junior co-captain Justice Yennie remains undefeated through two seasons at third singles, taking down Sam Lahart 6-0, 7-6 for the Vineyard’s first win of the match. At first doubles, juniors Jackson McBride and Natty Schneider picked up a 6-1, 6-4 win to put the team at 2-0. Junior Patrick McCarthy battled CCA’s Will White at second singles, falling 6-3, 6-3.

At first singles, junior co-captain Kent Leonard blanked opponent Patrick Wyeth 6-0 in the first set, but lost in the second by the same margin and fell 6-3 in the final set, putting the match at 2-2. Juniors Ryan Sawyer and Justin Smith brought home the Vineyard win with a 6-1, 6-3 victory on the second doubles courts.

Last Friday, the team defeated Chatham 4-0, with freshmen Donovan Belisle and Charlie Parkhurst starting their first varsity match at second doubles. Their match was ruled incomplete due to rain.

The Vineyarders traveled to Dover-Sherborne on Wednesday, taking the match 3-1, with the second doubles match ruled incomplete as the team had to leave early to make the ferry. McCarthy lost his first set at second singles 4-6, but rallied to sweep the next two in decisive fashion, going 6-0, 6-1.

The girls’ tennis team wrapped up its regular season in standout fashion as well, sweeping Clinton and Cape Cod Academy in its final two matches to move to a 16-2 season record. Their only losses were to undefeated Barnstable.

Head coach Connie McHugh said the tough Barnstable matches were scheduled to better prepare the team for postseason competition.

The team took a 5-0 win against visiting Cape Cod Academy last Thursday and repeated the performance Friday against Clinton. Freshman sisters Samantha and Charlotte Potter partnered for the first time at number one doubles against Clinton, going 6-1, 6-3. Junior Julia Cooper took to the singles court, earning a straight-sets win in her first solo appearance of the season.

The girls are seeded third in the divisional tournament, and will play Seekonk at home today at 3:30 p.m.

Last Friday, the softball team defeated Bourne 11-5 on Friday for their 10th win of the season, making them the final squad to advance to the playoffs. The girls earned an eleventh-hour trip to the postseason last year as well, winning four out of their last six games.

This year, the team’s record stood at 9-9 with two games yet to play. The final game of the regular season, however, was against Eastern Athletic Conference powerhouse Coyle and Cassidy, who defeated the Vineyarders 26-0 earlier in the season and have won the conference title 17 out of the last 18 years.

“We had our backs against the wall,” coach Herman said, “We knew the Coyle game was going to be the tougher of the two, so we really put our emphasis on the Bourne game.”

Junior pitcher Hailee McCarthy turned in a standout performance against Bourne, going two for two with two triples and two walks while earning the win on the mound. Senior captain Sarah Williston also had a triple, while junior Micheli Lynn continued the team’s power hitting by adding a double.

McCarthy pitched on no rest the next day against Coyle; though the Vineyarders fell 9-4, they nevertheless were able to push back against the formidable opponent, with junior Meg Buchanan hitting an RBI triple and classmate Emily Cimeno chipping in an RBI of her own.

The team is seeded seventeenth in their MIAA division, and plays Medfield today in the first round of the tournament.

Not all Vineyard teams compete in tournament play, however. The sailing team, having already competed in the run for the New England Team Racing Championships, will take part in the Cape and Islands League championship race this weekend. And the track teams, having finished their regular seasons, sent their best individual athletes to the MIAA Division Four Eastern Massachusetts Championship Meet last weekend.

The boys’ team scored 26 points to take tenth place of 37 scoring teams (40 teams participated), bolstered by sophomore Jeremy Alley-Tarter’s second-place time in the 800 metres (1:58.19, a personal best) and the 4x400 relay team’s (Alley-Tarter and seniors Je’Vaughn Crooks, Peter Keaney and Rafael Maciel) third place finish. Maciel had a standout yet bittersweet day, resetting his own school record in the 400 metre hurdles with a personal best time of 57.95 seconds, but falling five one-hundredths of a second short of fourth place. The top four finishers in each event travel to the MIAA All-State meet, which will be held this weekend; Maciel also turned in a fifth-place leap in the triple jump, going 40’10.5”.

Junior Maggie Riseborough, meanwhile, had what head coach Joe Schroeder described as “one of the better performances I’ve ever seen in a division meet,” winning both the shot put and the discus and scoring twenty points to singlehandedly put the girls’ team in eleventh place overall.

Riseborough threw 14 feet farther than her previous personal best in the final rounds of discus, winning by four feet with a throw of 106’7”. Immediately after the victory, she stepped to the shot put area to throw 36” and earn the win.

Other top-eight finishers for the Vineyard were Crooks in the high jump (7th), sophomore Joe Turney in the javelin (8th), junior Jacob Lawrence in the long jump (8th), and the boys’ 4x800 relay team (8th place).