Darien maintained its No. 1 ranking as FCIAC teams are ranked 1-through-4 and in six of the top eight spots in the season’s second Top 10 Girls Lacrosse Coaches Poll which was released April 20.
The defending state Class L champion Blue Wave, with a 5-0 record at the time of the voting, received 11 of the 12 first-place votes and 119 polling points to finish with 10 more points than second-ranked New Canaan, which received the other first-place vote.
Chloe Humphrey fired in five goals, Ceci Stein had four goals and two assists, and Ryan Hapgood had three goals and an assist to lead Darien to a 15-11 victory over New Canaan in Tuesday’s No. 1-vs.-No. 2 showdown at Darien High School.
The voting for the current poll had already been tabulated before Tuesday’s game. Darien improved to 6-0 with the win and New Canaan dropped to 5-2. Devon Russell scored five goals and Kaleigh Harding had a hat trick Tuesday to lead defending FCIAC champion New Canaan.
Wilton (3-1) is ranked No. 3 in the current state poll with 96 polling points and Ridgefield (2-3) is ranked fourth with 65 points. Wilton defeated host Ridgefield, 18-9, this past Saturday (April 16).
The top five teams are in the same exact spots in which they were in the season’s initial poll which was released April 12. Defending state Class M champion Guilford (5-1) is again No. 5 as the highest-ranked non-FCIAC team.
FCIAC teams Staples (3-1) and Greenwich (2-1) are ranked sixth and eighth, respectively. They exchanged positions from the previous poll, due mainly to Staples’ 10-6 home victory over Greenwich on April 14.
Undefeated Newtown (5-0) vaulted into the Top 10 at No. 7. Cheshire (5-1) is ranked ninth and unbeaten New Fairfield (5-0) completes the Top 10.
There are three teams in the “Others receiving votes” category, none from the FCIAC.
Darien was voted No. 1 in last year’s final poll after coach Lisa Lindley’s Blue Wave won the 2021 Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class L Girls Lacrosse Tournament with a 14-6 victory over fellow FCIAC member Fairfield Ludlowe in the championship game.
Fourth-seeded Darien advanced to the state Class L final with an 8-4 victory over the top-seeded and undefeated New Canaan Rams, who had won all three previous games between the two teams last season.
Top-seeded New Canaan had defeated second-seeded Darien, 7-4, in the championship game of the 2021 FCIAC Girls Lacrosse Tournament.
Coach Kristin Woods’ New Canaan Rams cruised to a 15-5 semifinal victory over fourth-seeded Fairfield Ludlowe and Darien advanced to the conference championship game with a 12-6 victory over third-seeded Wilton.
In the opening quarterfinal round of last year’s FCIAC tournament: New Canaan defeated eighth-seeded St. Joseph by an 18-7 margin; Darien beat seventh-seeded Ridgefield, 18-6; Wilton advanced to the semifinals with a 15-10 victory over sixth-seeded Greenwich; and Fairfield Ludlowe defeated fifth-seeded Staples, 11-9.