Eye On The CIAC

Previous Eye On The CIAC posts have suggested the spring season was winding down, and this week it officially winds down with brackets and tournament play commencing at the late of the week. As such, the focus of most of this look back at last week are teams fighting to reach the the .400 winning percentage mark that teams need to earn a spot in the championship brackets.

Boys Lacrosse:

• Shelton earned a key win early in the week to climb towards that .400 mark. The team knocked off Hamden 11-4 to open the week to bring them within a win of the qualification mark, with three games left on the regular season schedule.
• Tolland and Rocky Hill played a one-goal affair with Tolland capturing the 7-6 win. The loss dropped Rocky Hill below the .400 mark with four games left on the schedule as they now sit at 4-7 on the year. The team will need a pair of wins to reach the postseason qualification.
• Wednesday saw Masuk capture a 15-10 win over Pomperaug that moved it to within one win of the .400 mark as its 5-8 record has the team at .385. After a three-game slide in late April, they have won three of their last four and have three games left on the regular season slate.
• Stratford earned an 11-4 win over Jonathan Law on Thursday to reach the .400 mark, and now has one game left on the regular season schedule to try and hold on to postseason position.
• North Haven has found its footing at the right time, snapping a four-game losing streak with two wins last week to push themselves past the .400 mark. The latest was a 17-4 victory over West Haven late in the week.

Girls Tennis:

• Jonathan Law opened its week with a win that moved them closer to the postseason with its third consecutive win, this time by a 4-3 score over Lyman Hall. The team still has four games left on the schedule after its second 4-3 win of the year.
• Holy Cross picked up its 15th win of the season by squeaking past Kennedy 4-3.  Holy Cross is firmly entrenched in the top-10 of the rankings in class S, while the loss dropped Kennedy below .400 with its regular season schedule complete.
• A match-up between Brookfield and Pomperaug went the distance on Wednesday with Pomperaug capturing the 4-3 win to finish off the regular season with an 8-7 record. Brookfield concluded its regular season at 6-9, right at the .400 mark.
• Windsor Locks posted a pair of victories last week over Canton and Enfield and with two games remaining on the schedule. The two wins last week brought the squad to 7-9 on the season an in contention for a postseason berth.

Boys Volleyball:

• Fermi opened the week with a much-needed 3-2 win over Rockville as it tries to make a late push for the postseason. The team opened the season 0-9 and has now won three of its last four with the most recent win.
• A contest between a pair of highly-ranked class L teams on Monday went to Staples as the team knocked off previously-unbeaten Ridgefield 3-1. The two teams are a combined 31-2 on the year and Staples has won 15-consecutive matches after opening the season with a loss to Southington.
• Danbury captured a victory over Bridgeport Central in midweek and then knocked off St. Joseph by a 3-1 score on Friday to finish the regular season at 8-9 to reach the .400 qualifying mark.

Softball:

• A tough 3-2 win to open the week has Fairfield Warde still in the hunt for a postseason berth. After four-straight losses the Mustangs may have righted the ship in time with back-to-back victories with Gabby Natoli striking out eight and also collecting an RBI triple in the win over Ridgefield.
• Bacon Academy captured a one-run win over Montville on Tuesday, improving to 10-7 with a second-straight win. Montville fell below .500 and has been alternating wins and losses over the past few weeks and has three games remaining on the schedule.
• St. Joseph secured the top seed for the FCIAC playoffs with an 8-2 win over Westhill. St. Joseph now sits at 16-3 on the season.
• Shelton closed the week with back-to-back shutouts to close the regular season with an 8-12 record which puts them right at .400. The team blanked Branford 2-0 on Wednesday and then shutout Sacred Heart 1-0 on Thursday to finish out the season.

Boys Golf:

• Glastonbury won the highly-competitive Wildcat Invitational on Monday by posting a score of 337 as a team in the first 18-hole event of the season. Junior Evan Grenus shot a 74 to help lead Glastonbury to victory, finishing ahead of Xavier which placed second.
• Fairfield Prep improved to 10-5 on the season with a 160-186 victory over East Haven late in the week. Fairfield Prep scored between 39-41 with medalist Bryce Keblish leading the way with the 39. 

Girls Golf:

• Bacon Academy standout Kate Bickhardt was the top scorer at the girls nine-hole event at the Wildcat Invitational, as she shot a 53 to pace the field.
• Darien pulled out a win over Danbury and New Canaan, posting a score of 193 to Danbury’s 209 and a 224 for New Canaan. Izzy Lee of Darien was the lone player to break 40 with her 39 to lead all players. 

Track & Field:

• New Fairfield won four-team meet on Monday, with the boys team completing a second-consecutive unbeaten regular season.
• In other Fairfield Warde news (non-softball related) Cate Allen produced the first sub-5 minute 1,600-meters of the outdoor season on the girls side. She ran 4:56.4 in a meet on Monday in the strong performance.
• Tyler Latham of Fitch produced one of the best 300-meter hurdles marks of the season in a meet at New London. He ran a time of 39.1 which is one of just four sub 40-second times in the event this season.

Baseball:

• Nonnewaug opened the week reaching the .400 mark on the year thanks to a 3-2 win over Litchfield for a second-consecutive win. The team had lost five straight before a win the previous Friday halted the skid.
• Two great 1-0 pitchers duels on Tuesday with Bristol Central and Bethel coming out on top. Bristol Central remained unbeaten with a 1-0 win over top-10 ranked Berlin, while Bethel went nine innings to eventually prevail over Bunnell by a 1-0 score.
• O’Brien Tech sneaked past Vinal Tech by a 3-2 score on Wednesday for a win that moved the team to a .421 winning percentage with only one game left on the regular season schedule. Vinal Tech has dropped three-straight games and has a record of 7-8 with two games remaining.
• University/Classical Magnet has been making a late push to the postseason with five-straight victories heading into its final two games. It posted wins over Capital Prep and Prince Tech now have the team at 7-9 with two games remaining.

Boys Tennis:

• Cromwell collected a 4-3 win over Coginchaug for its fifth win in the last six matches. Three of those wins were 4-3 decisions as the team seems to be hitting its stride with the season in its final weeks.
• Amity continued its dominant regular season with a hard-fought 4-3 win over Cheshire. Amity is now 14-1 and the win was the first time it dropped more than two matches within the match, with the exception of its 4-3 loss to Daniel Hand. It was a fifth-straight setback for Cheshire, two of which are by 4-3 scores.
• Stamford earned a nice 4-3 win over Brien McMahon to close out its regular season in strong fashion. Stamford finished the year at 6-10 with four of its six victories coming on the road.
• Branford outlasted Xavier in its final match of the regular season, earning the victory by a 4-3 score. The squad will take a 13-4 record into the postseason and having won four of its last five matches.

Girls Lacrosse:

• Five straight lopsided wins for Windsor has turned its season around with the latest win coming on Monday that moved the team nearly to the .500 mark. The team handled the Bristol Co-op 11-1 and has outscored its last five opponents by 48 over the last five matches, after the team lost the first six games of the season.
• A tight battle between East Catholic and Rocky Hill went the way of Rocky Hill on Tuesday which has the Terriers approaching the .400 mark after a second-consecutive win. The team has three games left and is 5-8 on the year.
• Shelton is enjoying a strong close to the season as it won a third-straight game on Wednesday to reach the .400 mark. The team topped Sacred Heart Academy 9-6 on Wednesday and now has one regular-season game left.
• Housatonic Regional’s close to the season has them in position to claim a postseason spot. The team posted a narrow three-goal win over Valley Regional on Tuesday and then triumphed over Watertown on Friday to move to 6-7 on the season with just one match remaining.

RANKINGS WATCH
Each Monday we take a look at any major movement in the top-10 of the CIAC Tournament Rankings for those sports where it is provided (rankings and records are based on results reported through the CIAC on-line reporting system). With the brackets in the sports where these rankings are relevant coming out at the end of the week, this will be the final Rankings Watch of the season. And it will be a Rankings Watch that comes the closest to showing what the brackets might look like later in the week.

• Not a lot of movement in the top-10  of class L and class S in girls lacrosse this week, though there was some significant shifting in class M. Brookfield vaulted from ninth to fourth in class M, and New Fairfied also slid up a few spots from fifth to third. Farmington lost two matches and fell from second to eighth in those class M rankings. In L, Glastonbury resumed its place atop the rankings while Ridgefield climbed one place at the bottom part of the rankings and Newington moved into the top-10. In S, Old Saybrook moved up one position and Somers and Bethel hold the ninth and 10th positions at the bottom of the top-10.
• The biggest shifts in the baseball rankings came in class M. North Branford climbed from sixth to third and Holy Cross moved from ninth to fifth. The shifts in class S were all one or two spot moves, and Portland slides from outside the top-10 into ninth place. Bristol Central remains one of two unbeaten teams overall and is still leading the LL rankings. Greenwich’s move from fifth to third and Glastonbury also moved up two positions. Fairfield Prep at eight was another team to climb into the top-10 from an outside position. The same is true of Bunnell in class L which marked the biggest shift in those rankings, and East Lyme and Notre Dame-West Haven were also new editions at the bottom part of the top-10.
• There were virtually no major changes in the girls tennis rankings from a week ago, with only two new teams premiering in the top-10s, and the remaining teams shifting around slightly. The largest shift was a drop from Daniel Hand in L as the team fell from second to eighth, which moved nearly every team up one spot. Newington had a two-spot jump in that class marking the biggest positive move. East Lyme is now ninth in class M moving from outside the top-10 and Platt slid up from eighth to sixth. Northwest Catholic assumed the top spot in S, moving up one position and Old Saybrook and Holy Cross swapped places in the middle of the top-10.
• Ridgefield was dealt its first loss and Glastonbury moved into the top spot in the class L boys volleyball rankings. Amity appears at the eighth spot after being outside the top-10 last week, and the remaining teams shifted places within the top-10. Southington vaulted past one team to move from fifth to fourth and East Hartford shifted down one position. The top-3 in M remained the same while Wolcott Tech swapped places with Lewis Mills and is now fourth. Wethersfield moved up one position to sixth, and New Canaan also improved by one spot up to ninth.
• The 30 teams in the top-10 from last week remain the exact same as this week with just some minor shifting within the boys lacrosse rankings. The three class leaders remain the same from a week ago with Ridgefield atop L, Avon leading M and Stonington holding the top position in S. There was minimal shifting in class L with a three-spot fall for Xavier from second to fifth ranking as the biggest move. New Fairfield climbed into the top half of M with a move up from seventh and Daniel Hand slid a few spots to allow others to move up a position or two. Morgan was the big climber in class S jumping from eighth to fifth which knocked a few teams down a position or two. East Catholic also had a one-position improvement from ninth to eighth.
• Third place was tumultuous in all four classes in the softball rankings with a new team assuming that position in all four, and softball had the biggest changes from a week ago. Seymour and St. Joseph in M both making big moves as Seymour jumped from fifth to third and St. Joseph vaulted from eighth to fourth. Class S saw Putnam also make a big climb to third, coming all the way up from sixth. University/Classical Magnet moved up two spots to sixth and Canton was another two-position mover. Stamford in LL made a big move by climbing into seventh from outside the top-10 and Mercy was the team to assume the third position by moving from fourth. Rockville is the new number-three in L after swapping positions with Maloney in L, where there was very little movement otherwise.