Meet Bailey Lower and Emerson Pekarcik, the duo that has Nantucket girls lacrosse unbeaten

When a sports team has one star player, it's a good thing. When you have two, it's a great thing.

The Nantucket girls lacrosse team offers a perfect example.

Led by their pair of stars, the Whalers defeated Nauset 18-6 on Thursday.

Introducing Bailey Lower and Emerson Pekarcik.

“It's an amazing thing to watch the two of them having such a deep love and understanding of the game,” Nantucket head coach Jami Lower said. “I feel very, very lucky to have both of them on my team.”

The two have helped Nantucket to their 13th straight win and an unbeaten record of 13-0.

The Dynamic Duo

In the win over Nauset, Bailey Lower and Pekarcik showed why they are not only one of the best duos on Cape Cod, but in the state.

Pekarcik finished the game with eight goals and three assists, while Bailey Lower had six goals, seven assists and 16 draw controls.

The pair has been doing that all season long.

“I’m a lefty and she’s (Emerson) a righty, so we can work on opposite sides of the field,” Bailey Lower said. “We always have our heads up looking for each other.”

One of them has the most goals or assists, or both, in every game this season.

The bond goes beyond just the Nantucket lacrosse team.

“We both play club (lacrosse) all year round, so I think having each other in that aspect is really big,” Pekarcik said.

With those two leading the charge, the Whalers' offense is firing on all cylinders.

They have scored at least 14 goals in every game this season. Over the first 13 games so far, they have scored a total of 220 goals (that is not a typo), which is just under 17 goals per game.

Bailey Lower and Pekarckik are the main offensive weapons, but lacrosse is a team sport and they know they are not alone.

Players like Cydney Mosscrop, Mayson Lower, Dylan Damian, and Suz Peraner have also been key contributors on offense.

“We show up on the scoresheet, but everyone with every movement, every pick, every position, helps us a lot and freezes up the field for us,” Bailey Lower said.

That team help also shows up on defense, which starts with goalie Claire Misurelli, who had 12 saves in the win over Nauset.

The Whalers have only allowed double-digit goals once this season, beating teams by an average of 11 goals per game.

As senior captains, Bailey Lower and Pekarcik lead in more ways than just scoring goals and racking up assists.

“They’re verbal and vocal leaders, but they’re also silent leaders,” Coach Lower said. “I feel the team really leans on them, and looks to them for where to go and where to be.”

Nantucket keeps winning

In a game against North Reading at home Saturday, the Whalers will look to extend their win streak to 14.

“We’ve really been approaching it one game at a time,” Coach Lower said. “I haven't even said the ‘U’ word (undefeated) to them, but we don’t talk about it. Hopefully we’ll keep riding this wave and we’ll see.”

Bailey Lower and Pekarcik agree that to keep the winning streak going, they need to have a better start to their games.

“The adrenaline at the beginning (of games) is usually a bit intense,” Pekarcik said. “We don’t really make good passes or take bad shots, so it's just honing in on the fundamentals and locking in with each other.”

In the game against Nauset, the Whalers only led 3-2 after the first period, and the Warriors even tied the game at 3-3 in the second period.

“For the last couple of games, we have a tendency to come out slow, and I think that when we realize that we’re coming out slow, our coaches and our teammates can help get us hype,” Bailey Lower said.

Warriors still fighting

Nauset started the season 5-1. Since then, they have lost five of their last seven games, and sit at 7-7.

Three of those losses have been by four or fewer goals.

“We’re going to turn it around because there’s two games that we know we should have won,” Nauset head coach Heather Stevens said.

Stevens said Nauset is a team that prejudges who they play before they step on the field.

“It's like we play up to the really good (teams), and play down to the ones that are lesser, or the ones on our level,” Stevens said. "Sometimes we get in our heads if we get down quickly. Hoping to keep up in the rankings.”

The Warriors are currently ranked in the top 10 of Division 3 MIAA power rankings with the 10th spot. They have five games left in the regular season that starts on Saturday at home against Mashpee.

Contact Courtney Jacobs at cjacobs@capecodonline.com. Follow him on X/Twitter: @CJ_Journalist.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Nantucket girls lacrosse team is undefeated with 13 straight wins