Nobles Day Brings Rivalry and Farewell to Athletes
By Samuel Breyer-Essiam ’28
Ten Milton teams took the field, court, and diamond Friday, May 22, for Nobles Day, the annual rivalry day that marks the end of the spring athletic season. For most teams, these games doubled as senior day, meaning starting lineups were mainly composed of seniors for their final game as Milton athletes. Some teams arrived as Independent School League (ISL) champions, while others battled through difficult seasons against challenging opponents.
Of all the afternoon’s matchups, Milton’s Boys’ Varsity Tennis team had the clearest stakes entering Nobles Day. With an undefeated ISL record and a single loss from Exeter, a non-conference opponent, the team needed one more game to seal the title. It earned a four-to-two victory, taking the doubles match and singles positions four, five, and six before what Max Pasciucco ’28 called the largest crowd the program had ever seen was drawn to a single match.
Milton’s varsity baseball team had already secured the ISL title before walking onto Nash Field to play Nobles. With the lineup shaped around seniors and freshmen, the team fell ten to nothing, a result Steven Novak ’28 said was less important than what the afternoon actually brought. “It was almost like a bittersweet moment,” Novak explained, “because this was our last time with this team.” For the baseball team, the season had already concluded, and so the Nobles game was merely a final hurrah before graduating seniors moved on to their next destinations.
A five-to-four loss to Nobles Day does not correctly capture how Milton’s varsity girls’ tennis team actually performed on Nobles Day. Nobles entered the match as reigning ISL champions with a roster that had tested Milton across every position. Charlotte Weinstein ’26, playing her final match as a Milton athlete, won her third doubles pairing eight to three before dropping both sets in singles against an opponent she described as challenging. Though nerves ran through the lineup at the start of the match, they later settled once the match started, letting them compete with composure and steadfastness. Milton finished six and nine of the year, ninth in the ISL, numbers that don’t give justice to how much the program has grown between its first and last match. Even though the team did not get the exact result they desired, their final match was a display of what Weinstein describes as what the team had been “working up to playing this well the whole season.”
Milton’s girls’ varsity lacrosse team had already faced Nobles once this season; however, the distance between the first game and Nobles Day measured how far the program had grown throughout the season. The first time the two faced, the encounter carried intimidation. Nobles arrived with a strong record and a roster full of Division 1 commits. But the second game began with all five seniors starting, and having nothing left to prove gave Milton a much more focused and enjoyable game. Milton finished the season seven and eight, earning the seventh seed in the ISL tournament, building a stronger team across a year of competition against programs that constantly pushed the team. “No matter how good the Nobles team was,” Sasha Norton ’28 said, “we never stopped fighting.”
Ultimately, while Milton earned mixed results on Nobles Day, these losses and victories are mere snapshots in a season full of hard work and team bonding.