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Sisters: Jenna ( left) and Jodi Fralick with the ball for Jodi’s record 46th goal last year. |
Globe North Sports Notebook
Sisters put Lesley soccer on map
The senior, Jodi, is what coach Paul Vasconcelos calls “a cutthroat, take-it-to-the goal and score type of player.’’
The sophomore, Jenna, he says, “is more cerebral, a tactical thinker.’’
Together, sisters Jodi and Jenna Fralick of Woburn have given credibility to a Lesley University women’s soccer program that just three years ago struggled through a dismal 2-15-2 season.
This season, the pair are the catalysts who have made Lesley the preseason pick to win its first New England Collegiate Conference championship. Lesley won its first three games before being tripped up by Mount Holyoke, 2-1, and the Fralicks have already combined for seven goals and two assists.
But scoring goals is nothing new to Jodi Fralick. In her first three seasons, she had pumped in 71 goals (22, 22, and 27) and added 20 assists, making her the all-time scorer in program history. Throw in the five she already has this year and she is a legitimate threat to wind up with 100 or more career goals. If she does that, according to Vasconcelos, she would rank in the top 10 among the nation’s Division 3 players.
“One hundred goals? I’d love to do it, but that’s a stretch,’’ admitted Jodi, a 5-foot-2 striker. “Conceivably it could happen, but more than anything else, I want a championship for this team. That would be much better. A championship and a chance to play in the NCAAs. Winning is a lot more important to me than personal goals.’’
She is, according to Vasconcelos, a complete athlete, one who “just happens to excel in soccer. She has blazing speed and she finishes. Some players shoot. She shoots and finishes. She, as well as the other seniors, have helped turn this program around.’’
Jodi is coming off a season in which she earned NECC Player of the Year honors after leading Lesley to a school-best 16-3-2 record. The year before Lesley was 14-4-1. But Fralick remembers that lean freshman year of 2-15-1. “It was frustrating,’’ she said. “We always had winning teams at Woburn High and were always playing in the postseason tournaments. It was tough winning just two games. But I knew it would get better and it did. We have a lot to be proud of.’’
Jenna is also a goal scorer, with two thus far after netting 10 as a freshman.
“I’m usually the one checking back and Jodi’s the one finishing, and I like that role,’’ she said. “I like to make things happen. What Jodi does is absolutely amazing, and I love getting the ball to her. We just seem to click. I know where she is going to be on the field and she knows where I’m going to be. We know what to expect from each other. I guess you can call it a sister sense.’’
Jodi chimed in, “Scoring is always on my mind, but Jenna is the brains of the operation.’’
Also on the team are seniors Hailee Lowe of Hamilton and Cathryn Folkestad of Ipswich. Lowe, a goalie, sports a 2-1 record with a 0.33 goals against average, while Folkestad, a back who lives in Ipswich, has two goals, one of them the game-winner against Eastern Nazarene.
UMass pitcher gets good reviews in Va.
PG Cross Checker, which follows summer amateur baseball leagues across the country, has ranked University of Massachusetts-Lowell sophomore pitcher Jack Leathersich the top prospect in the Virginia-based Valley Baseball League. The Beverly High grad was used mostly out of the bullpen for the Haymarket Senators, who won the VBL playoff as the seventh-seed. The hard-throwing lefty was 2-0 with a 2.19 earned run average in 19 appearances in 37 innings. He had six saves and his 64 strikeouts ranked second in the league. He held opposing batters to a .136 average.“This shows that he is one of the top pitchers in the country regardless of the division,’’ said UMass coach Ken Harring. “It’s a great honor for him and adds a lot of credibility to our program.’’ According to PG Cross Checker, Leathersich was chosen after input from scouts and league managers and other staff. He was due on the mound today when UMass opens its fall baseball season hosting Bunker Hill Community College at LeLacheur Park.
Around and about
Bentley junior Lauren Lesniak of Dracut finished second in the Shacklette Cross-Country Invitational at St. Anselm. Lesniak was clocked in 20 minutes and 9 seconds. Merrimack’s men’s cross-country team finished third in the same event behind John Lawrence of Peabody, who was fifth, and John Doherty of Chelmsford, who was ninth. . . . Senior Brendan Livingston of Westford carded rounds of 74 and 79 to lead the University of Massachusetts at Lowell to an eighth-place finish at the season-opening Rutgers Golf Invitational. Seventy-five players representing 13 Division 1, 2, and 3 schools competed.Ideas or information may be sent to JohnPVel@aol.com. 
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
