This story originally ran in The Standard-Times on Oct. 31, 2002.

By Nick Tavares
Standard-Times correspondent

On Saturday night, the New Bedford High School gym will be host to one of the most intriguing local matchups of the Division I South Sectional tournament, as the Whalers will play host to Dartmouth High School.

New Bedford finished up the season at 15-5, which included two wins over the Indians. However, head coach Neil Macedo isn't taking anything lightly.

"They're a scrappy team and they're a good serving team," said Macedo. "They're also very good defensively, which is our weakness right now and that's something we'll have to work out.

"We won both matchups, but they were all good games and they kept it close."

"We were picked up at the end of the season after beating Dighton-Rehoboth," said Dartmouth head coach Rochelle Gaydou, "and I feel like we're hitting and serving well."

The key to the best-of-five match will be in the middle, where Dartmouth (10-8) will have to work to answer New Bedford's tandem of Tracy Sedlack and Lindsay Parker.

"New Bedford is very talented, we'll need to be mentally prepared and we'll be looking for some key blocks from Erin O'Neil," said Gaydou.

Apponequet (16-4) is also gearing up for tournament play and has the luxury of a first-round bye, earning the second seed in Division 2.

"Well record-wise we had our best season ever," said head coach Kevin Bellevance, "and the No. 2 seed was a nice reward for the girls.

"We also have an advantage of getting to wait it out a little while some of the other teams battle it out, and luckily we won't have to face a team for the third time this year."

The Lakers will play on Monday against the winner of the match between GNB Voc-Tech and Canton.

Old Rochester, a No. 8 seed in Division 2, will be opening up against ninth-seeded Bishop Stang on Friday night, which will be the first meeting between the two schools all year.

"We haven't seen them but we finished out our season on an upswing," said ORR head coach Stephanie King. "We seem to rise to the level of our opponent, but we have to stay focused on just the basic skills and not worry too much.

"We're tough on serving and offense, and if we can play well as a team we should be fine."

The Bulldogs (11-7) wound up their season with four consecutive wins, including victories against Dighton-Rehoboth and Bishop Feehan, the latter of whom beat Bishop Stang.

Tenth-seeded Greater New Bedford Voc-Tech (12-9) will also be facing the unknown when it takes on Canton tomorrow night. The Bears are in the tournament for the first time in six years and are excited about the first-round pairing.

"Well I was ready for about 85 percent of the teams in the tournament, and wouldn't you know it we're facing one of the 15 percent I know nothing about," head coach Jay Schmidt kidded yesterday. "What I do know is that it should be a good game, and we should have a good shot at winning if we play well."

Fairhaven (11-9) will have a tough match against SCC power Bourne on Monday, but first will have a preliminary match against Old Colony to prepare for it.

"There has been quite a bit of improvement since the beginning of the season, and everybody has stepped it up" said Fairhaven coach Karen Arsenault. "We're a young team and they sometimes show their inexperience in pressure situations, but overall we have played better against tougher teams.

"The game against Old Colony will help our younger players get a better feel for what a tournament game is like, but we have to take it seriously if we want to be successful."

This story appeared on Page B3 of The Standard-Times on October 31, 2002.