Sunday, March 26, 2017

LVS17 Post-Season Banquet & VSPYs

The LVS17 Post Season Banquet will be on Sunday, April 9th at Joe T Garcia's from 6:00pm-10pm with arrivals and pictures at 5:30pm.

Also the athletic department will be hosting the Inaugural VSPY Awards on Sunday, May 7th honoring outstanding athletic achievements and performances during the 2016-2017 academic year.

The sports legacy at Nolan Catholic runs deep and for more than 50 years, has honored outstanding achievements by athletes, teams, coaches, administrators, and supporters, as today’s standouts grab a piece of our school’s rich sports history and share it with yesterday’s stars.

This year, the Nolan Catholic Athletic Department and the Viking Club will birth the Vikings Sports Performance of the Year Awards. The event will be a sit down affair, honoring the greats of Nolan Catholic sports.

The event is stage production hosted at the Harnett Arena at Nolan Catholic High School and will be one of the best nights of the year in Nolan Catholic Athletics for athletes, fans, partners, and community supporters.

Wednesday, March 1, 2017

29-Time TAPPS Regional Champions; Final Four bound

With a 1-0 double overtime win the Lady Vikings win their 15th game and are crowned TAPPS Regional Champions earning their 29th trip to the TAPPS Final Four, more then any other team in the history of the league.  The match started strong with the Lady Vikings putting a ton of pressure on the Lady Cardinals who they had beaten earlier in the season 2-0 and 3-0.  Rattling off some good shot attempts and several corners in the first half of the play, the Lady Vikings were kept off the board crediting the John Paul goalkeeper with a couple outstanding saves.

"As the first half went on we lost some rhythm and the game was end to end.  We usually are good in games like that but tonight we needed to expose space a bit better," said LVS head coach, Jay Fitzgerald.

The Lady Vikings defending was outstanding limiting the Lady Cardinals to 4 shots on goal while taking 11 shots of their own adding in 9 corner kicks.  Fitzgerald continued, "We just were NOT going to get scored on."

Coming alive at the end of both halves in regulation, opportunities were starting to become a little more dangerous.  Half chances started to become full chances especially in overtime.  Early and often the Lady Vikings got the ball in front of the Cardinals net but could not capitalize, even after a goal was called back after a late offsides call as Megan Bettinger finished a ball that just got through the center backs.

The pro-LVS crowd provided the much needed energy to find an extra gear as the overtime periods grew closer and closer to a penalty kick shootout.  But it was Meghan Kittleson picking up a second ball from 20 yards out and placing it right over the head of the Lady Cardinal goalkeeper for the sudden death game-winner.  The goal was the first goal on the season for Kittleson on only the 5th shot she has taken all season long.

Fitzgerald spoke highly of the production of Kittleson, "We had a lot of really good players tonight but Kit got up and down the field for 96 minutes straight.  She is a box to box player that has an amazing engine."

With 4:15 minutes left on the clock in the 96th minute of play in double overtime, the Lady Vikings get the golden goal and earn another trip to the TAPPS Final Four, their 29th to be exact.  With 16 State Finals and 4 State Championships, the Lady Vikings move on in the playoffs taking on Ursuline on Friday night at 6:00pm at Liberty Christian.

The State Championship will be in Waco on March 9th at 5:00pm.