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Globe South Sports Notebook
Former Globe All-Scholastic Brittany Lyons will continue her hockey career at Quinnipiac University this fall.
A four-year varsity performer at Canton High with a lethal scoring touch, Lyons worked on her grades and her game this past year at Winchendon Prep. She broke her fibula in the first game of the season, but upon her return to the lineup, netted six goals in her first six games, with 10 assists, helping Prep finish 22-6-3.
Quinnipiac is looking to rebuild in the fall after ending last season 3-26-5, and 2-15-5 in the ECAC. At Canton, Lyons turned heads as a scorer, picking up 286 goals and 36 assists in her four years with the Bulldogs.
Four local athletes dominate heptathlon
Four girls from the area captured the top spots of the MSTCA South Heptathlon at Notre Dame Academy last week. Mansfield's Kelly McCabe won the event with 4,181 points. Walpole's Erica Hawley was second (3,997), Weymouth's Jenn Bell third (3,917), and Mansfield's Meghan Ferreira fourth (3,915).More than 100 athletes competed in the annual event that allows athletes to score points in the 100-meter hurdles, high jump, shot put, 200 meters, long jump, 800 meters, and javelin.
Mansfield won the overall event with a team score of 15, followed by Weymouth (9 points) and Walpole (8 points).
Quincy natives make Atlantic 10 rookie team
Quincy natives Mike LeBel and Tom Conley wrapped up their college rookie seasons with spots on the Atlantic 10 Conference Baseball Rookie All-League team. LeBel is a third baseman at Rhode Island, where he hit .323 with seven home runs and a .526 slugging percentage. LeBel, who graduated from Quincy, also stole 17 bases as Rhode Island ended the season 37-20-1. The season was described as one of the best in the program's history, as the team had wins over No. 8 Miami, No. 11 Oklahoma State, and No. 25 Ohio.Conley, who graduated from BC High, was a catcher at UMass. He owned a .979 fielding percentage after catching 49 of 53 games. He also hit .312 as UMass ended the season 27-26, its most wins since 2001.
The two were the only players from Massachusetts to make the Atlantic 10's list. This summer, the duo will continue sharpening their skills, as LeBel will play in the New England Collegiate Baseball League and Conley in the Cape Cod League.
Cohasset, Braintree end softball title runs
The state title run for the Cohasset and Braintree softball teams ended last week, one game shy of playing for the championship.Cohasset rallied to seize a 3-2 lead against St. Mary's of Lynn in the Division 3 state semifinals, but ended up losing, 4-3, in nine innings. Junior pitcher Kelly Naegelin came up with a strong performance that included helping Cohasset get out of a bases-loaded situation three times.
"We were hanging in a game that some people might argue we had no right to be in," said Cohasset coach Rob Spofford.
St. Mary's tied the game in the seventh inning before winning it in the ninth.
"It was a special team because of the four seniors who had been through the youth program and played together," Spofford said. "Those girls won at a lot of levels and they're still winners. . . . I look at this and say this was an incredible achievement."
Cohasset had plenty to celebrate this season as the No. 1 seed out of Division 3 South. It was the farthest a Cohasset softball team had reached in the postseason, and the team will graduate seniors Brittany Dunn, Carley Zappolo and Carly Salerno.
Braintree was stumped in a 1-0 loss against Lexington in the Division 1 semifinal. A home run ended the Wamps' season at 22-3.
The team graduates Liz DiMascio, Haley Bennett, Laura McDonough, Holly Driscoll, and Samantha Sherlock.
Monique Walker can be reached at mwalker@globe.com. 
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
