After opening the season with three straight wins, the girls’ tennis team ran into its usual nemesis and was shutout by Hingham, 5-0.

Despite the dominance shown by the final score, Duxbury Coach Jutta Rossano said it wasn’t as bad as it looked.

Was Duxbury baseball Coach Barney Earle sending up a smokescreen when he questioned if his team would have enough hitting to have a chance at winning the Patriot League title this year?

With shutout wins over Silver Lake, Whitman-Hanson and North Quincy, the Dragons had a good two-week stretch of warm-ups in preparation to take on the Harbormen and dethrone them as Patriot League champions.

Pick any kind of daredevil amusement ride and you’ll have a good idea of how the year has gone so far for the DHS girls’ lacrosse team. Up one minute and down the next, never knowing what lurks around the corner.

Coach Barney Earle figured he would save top starter Jeff Blout for the Patriot League opener against Silver Lake on Wednesday, and throw rookie right-hander Sam Jacobson to the wolves against defending EMASS champs Plymouth North last Monday afternoon on the road.

Rod Laniewski can thank Laura Walter for making his coaching debut a pleasant one.

Duxbury girls’ tennis coach Jutta Rossano had a stellar season in her first year of varsity coaching. Qualifying for postseason play with a 14-4 record, the second-year mentor will try to improve on last year’s record, but it won’t be easy.

The Duxbury boys’ track team opened against the iron of the Patriot League last Tuesday, but came away with a split of their dual meet with Whitman-Hanson (49-87) and Rockland (73.5-62.5)

It seems like good things always happen when a Connolly girl is on the roster, and it’s no different this spring, as junior Briana Connolly has the Lady Dragon golf team off to a 2-0 start.

So much for an undefeated season.

The Duxbury boys’ tennis team seems to have all the ingredients for doing some damage in the Patriot League this year, as well as going deep into tournament play.

There is a saying we could use every year when talking about the prospects for the Duxbury High School lacrosse team: we don’t rebuild, we just reload. On Friday afternoon in their season opener at Harvard Stadium, the Dragons proved that saying to be true, as they came away with their second dramatic win in a year on the Crimson’s turf with a 5-4 come-from-behind victory over Irondequoit High School from upstate New York.

Long gone are the days when Big Papi and Manny Ramirez were cranking out three-run homers that brought the Fenway faithful to their feet. The same can be said of the 2010 Duxbury High School baseball team.

After a season in which the Dragons scored 174 runs in 22 games, fan excitement will be much more subdued by the offense of this year’s squad.

The Duxbury boys’ tennis team will be relying on experience at the top of the lineup, as it tries to improve on its sectional final run of last season. After that surprising tournament showing, the 2010 season is full of high expectations, and returning starters in all three singles positions should mean trouble for Dragon opponents.

It’s that time of year when Duxbury lacrosse fans wonder if their team can do it again.

Spoiled by six consecutive state titles and seven in the last eight years, there is always talk of the players Coach Chris Sweet lost and how he’ll replace them. Somehow he does and the team keeps winning, but every year it seems that the emphasis is on a different phase of the game.

The people of Duxbury expect the best from their town when it comes to education, sports, and quality of life. Therefore, the next time you get an urge to cast a stone at the administration of the DHS sports program, your complaints may fall on deaf ears.

Why do you ask?