If the NFL Network is wondering why there was a peculiar bump in the ratings for last night's Panthers/Dolphins game in a New England city 725 miles away from Charlotte, it might come down to two words: Mackenzy Bernadeau.
 

The Watertown High field hockey team didn't get the day off yesterday as rumored in the postgame celebration following Wednesday's Division 2 state semifinal victory over Canton. But given the stakes involved with their next - and final - contest of a 23-game season, the Raiders probably didn't mind hitting the Waltham High turf yesterday, nor will they mind today despite some expected rain. If it means they will be that much sharper in tomorrow's state championship game against Oakmont Regional (Worcester State College, 1 p.m.), it will be worth it.
 

The Raider center becomes one of the few Watertown High School girls basketball players in recent memory to earn a scholarship to a Division I university.

Just as soon as sophomore goalkeeper Kayla Costa could finish saying that the Watertown High field hockey team would savor last night's Division 2 state semifinal victory up until it returned to practice today, her coach, Eileen Donahue, boarded the team bus Costa was standing behind and shouted that she was giving the team the day off from the Waltham High turf. The coach's news after the 1-0 victory against Canton High on Canton's home field only temporarily interrupted the Raider chants: ``We're going to the show! We're going to the show!''
 

When the match was lost, and season over, the cheers continued for the Mount Alvernia girls volleyball team. The Mustang rooting contingent - four dozen strong that sounded more like 400 singing and shrieking girls' voices echoing off all corners of the Nashoba Regional High School gymnasium - urged on Mount Alvernia with vigor throughout last night's Division 3 state semifinal against Norte Dame Academy of Tyngsboro. In the aftermath of a 25-13, 25-21, 15-25, 25-11 defeat, the cheers continued as a salute to the squad and all it accomplished in bringing a second sectional volleyball title banner in five seasons to the school.
 

Wheaton College men's basketball junior and Watertown High alumnus Anthony Coppola became the 12th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point milestone, hitting the plateau during the Lyons' season opener at Emerson College on Tuesday.

There should be few surprises for the Mount Alvernia girls volleyball team tonight even though the Mustangs enter unchartered territory in the Division 3 state semifinal against Notre Dame Academy of Tyngsboro. While several of the squad's nine seniors were only eighth-graders on junior varsity the last time Mount Alvernia won a sectional title in 2005, the Mustangs will face a familiar opponent in unfamiliar surroundings at Nashoba Regional tonight at 7. Mount Alvernia split a pair of five-set matches against Notre Dame during the regular season, with the Mustangs winning the first meeting in Tyngsboro and dropping the second at home.
 

The Waltham Hawks Squirt B youth hockey team, sponsored by Waltham Auto Body, won the Garden City Tournament, playing four times before edging Framingham 2-1 in a shootout for the title.
 

The Watertown High field hockey team had come too far - and gone too many games in a row without a loss - to see it end like this.  With the clock becoming a factor while facing a 1-0 deficit, the Raiders not only needed to get even, but they had to get angry to do it. When Erika Kelly popped a penalty-corner pass from senior Emily Sideris into the net with 15 seconds left in regulation, it saved the day for the Raiders and allowed them to fight another. The next challenge comes in the state semifinals where Watertown (19-0-2) faces South Sectional champion Canton (17-1-3) tomorrow at Canton High (5 p.m.).
 

The Waltham Track Club's youth cross country team had a very strong showing at the New England Junior Olympic Championships this past Sunday at Freestyle Farm in Amherst, N.H.
The Club achieved 13 personal records and 17 top-25 finishers, while qualifying three teams and five individuals for the Region 1 Junior Olympic Championships in Augusta, Maine next weekend.