Good morning. 🏒🏀 It’s Friday, Jan. 23. Last week proved to be a bit of a Freaky Friday for the Garnets. Over the course of 24 hours, several Rye teams that hadn’t lost in weeks (or in one case, all season), came up short.

The slew of mid-season setbacks gave Rye hockey, boys and girls basketball a rare opportunity to respond to adversity.

The Garnet hockey team plays tonight, for the first time since its nine-game unbeaten streak was snapped a week ago against Rivertowns. Boys basketball, which had its five-game win streak broken last Friday against Suffern, avoided back-to-back losses with a comeback win against Mahopac. The girls, who started the year 12-0, lost to Class AAA power Albertus Magnus, then bounced back by handily defeating Horace Greeley.

Meanwhile, another Rye team, boys squash, remains unbeaten.

Let’s go “Between the Lines” for a look at how each team can string together new streaks in the second half of the winter season.

“Between the Lines” is curated by sports editor Chris Marshall.

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Ready to Rebound

For a team with hopes of contending for a Class AA state title, playing Class AAA competition can be a good measuring stick.

Rye’s girls basketball team, which won its first dozen games, ran into a buzzsaw in Albertus Magnus, the two-time defending Class AAA champions. One positive that comes from competition of that caliber — even if it results in a 61-34 loss — is that it can make Class AA opponents suddenly seem like a breeze.

“The loss to Albertus Magnus will be a learning experience for us,” said Rye coach Margo Hackett. “They’re a very talented team, who will likely be winning a third-consecutive Class AAA state title.”

“This game exposed where and what our flaws are,” said junior Frankie Chiaravalle, “and now we know what to improve to make us better.”

The Garnets returned to their winning ways Wednesday, throttling Horace Greeley 58-31 to improve to 13-1. In Rye’s sixth 20-plus point win of the season, freshman Charlotte Storz scored a game-high 20 points, senior Phoebe Greto added 18, and senior Annie Toulouse had nine.

Tonight, Rye faces another Class AAA opponent, this time on the road at Mamaroneck (6-5). Beating a larger school, as the Rye boys did last month against New Rochelle, would be a nice feather in the cap for Hackett’s Garnets. But there are still games with larger stakes in the season’s home stretch.

Two of the Garnets’ final five games are against Ossining (8-4), the team that sits directly behind them in the Class AA standings. Rye is currently in position for the No. 2 seed in the postseason, trailing only Nyack (11-0). Beating Ossining twice, on Monday and in the regular-season finale Feb. 11, would likely ensure the Garnets play all postseason games at home, until a possible return to Westchester County Center for the section tournament semifinals.

“We have a tremendous group of girls who are eager to keep improving, and I’m excited to take what we learned and keep it rolling,” Hackett said.

Weather Report: More than a foot of snow is expected Saturday. Check out the weekend weather forecast for Rye here.

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Performers of the Week: Nate Kim-Retuter and Michael Talbott

⚫ Congrats to freshman Nate Kim-Reuter and senior Michael Talbott — winners of the Sportech Performer of the Week.

It wasn’t easy against Staples, but Rye’s boys squash team remained unbeaten with a 4-3 win Tuesday in Westport, Conn.

Although the Garnets were missing two of their regular starters, Kim-Reuter and Talbott delivered clutch performances to guide the team to a perfect 6-0 record.

Other Rye players to win Tuesday were Rocco DeFife, Harry Ellis, Emmett Deaner, Owen Karl, and Dylan Smailes.

The Garnets had dropped just one game in the 2026 calendar year, sweeping Greenwich Country Day and Scarsdale 7-0, and beating City Squash 6-1. The toughest test of the season thus far comes this week against Hackley, a non-league opponent.

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Game of the Week: Boys Bounce Back

🏀 After Suffern handed the Rye boys their first loss in a month, the Garnets rallied to beat Mahopac (8-5) for a sixth win in their past seven games.

Rye (7-3) trailed at the end of each of the first three quarters before storming ahead late in the game, making the final five minutes look easy in a 61-54 win Tuesday at home.

After jumping out to a 7-0 lead, the Garnets gave it all back and trailed 14-13 after the first quarter. Mahopac senior Drew Lichtenberger was on fire from beyond the arc, scoring 14 points as the Wolf Pac comfortably led 28-21 at the half.

After the first 1:15 of the third quarter, Mahopac’s lead swelled to 34-21, and the Garnets appeared to be on the ropes. But senior Henry Shoemaker poured in a game-high 28 points, and Rye outscored the Wolf Pac 40-20 over the game’s final 12 minutes to win rather decisively. 

Tonight, the Garnets host Eastchester (1-10), a team they beat 54-34 on Dec. 19.

— By Steven Kearney

This Week’s Rye Record: 3-3

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