The 2025 FCIAC Girls Lacrosse Tournament was among the conference tournaments in five sports scheduled to begin on May 23. As is annually the case, this tourney features many of the best girls’ lacrosse teams in the state.
That fact is for certain because when the FCIAC tournament field was set with Friday’s four opening quarterfinal games at the home fields of the highest-seeded teams, all four home teams are the top four ranked teams in the current state coaches’ poll.
Darien was unanimously voted No. 1 with all 13 first-place votes in the CT Girls Lacrosse Coaches Poll released on May 20 and followed by No. 2 Wilton, No. 3 New Canaan and No. 4 Ridgefield.
The schedule for Friday’s opening quarterfinal round of the FCIAC tournament had top-seeded Darien hosting No. 8 seed Fairfield Warde, No. 2 Wilton hosting No. 7 Fairfield Ludlowe, No. 3 New Canaan hosting No. 6 Greenwich, and No. 4 Ridgefield hosting No. 5 Staples.
That slate of quarterfinal games was set for the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend and FCIAC tourney action was scheduled to resume with the semifinal round on Tuesday, May 27.
The two semifinal games and the May 29 championship game will all be played at Brien McMahon High School’s Jack Casagrande Stadium.
Tuesday’s semifinal doubleheader begins at 4 o’clock, the second game is scheduled for 6 o’clock, and the highest remaining seed has the choice of the game time it. The faceoff for Thursday night’s championship is 6 o’clock.
The seedings were set up from the format in which all six of the conference’s Tier One teams, which is designated as the FCIAC West Division, are seeded in the top six spots.
Those six Tier One teams are followed by the top two Tier Two teams which are East Division champion Fairfield Ludlowe and division runner-up Fairfield Warde.
The records in the intra-divisional matchups determined the conference’s final divisional standings. Each Tier One team had five West Division games, and the rest of the conference’s nine teams had eight East Division games.
Darien finalized its unbeaten divisional record with a 16-4 home victory over Staples on May 20 to finish 5-0 in the FCIAC West Division and improve to 14-2 overall. Among those big West Division wins for coach Lisa Lindley’s Darien Blue Wave was a 14-4 home victory over Wilton on April 24.
Seven days after Darien’s 14-4 victory over Wilton, another big win which gave the Blue Wave the clear path to the No. 1 seed in the FCIAC tournament occurred May 1 when Katie Walsh scored four goals to lead Darien to its 9-2 victory at New Canaan.
Walsh led a balanced scoring attack in the No. 1-versus-2 showdown of the state’s top two ranked teams at the time. Anna Von Kennel scored a goal and had an assist and vital success in winning draws, Cameron Pokorny was also stellar on draws, and goalie Julianna Bambina had five saves for the winners.
After Wilton’s Warriors lost to Darien they proceeded to win their other four divisional games. They finished 4-1 in the division and 12-4 overall with their 14-8 victory on May 20 at Greenwich as that was the last game of the regular season for both teams.
A pivotal win which ultimately enabled the Warriors to earn the No. 2 seed was their 8-7 victory at New Canaan on May 6. That game also led to a flip-flopping of positions in the current state poll as Wilton moved up one spot to No. 2 and New Canaan dropped to No. 3.
Coach Kristin Woods’ New Canaan Rams, who are the defending FCIAC champions and were also last year’s state Class L champions, were dealt that loss by Woods’ alma mater.
Woods was tough, scrappy and an excellent high school player when she still had her maiden surname of Wood and she is correctly listed as Kristin Wood in the www.fciac.net archives as one of the three Wilton Warriors and 16 total conference players selected to the 1998 All-FCIAC Girls Lacrosse First Team.
Coach Woods’ New Canaan Rams clinched the No. 3 seed on May 15 when Sydney Patten had five goals and an assist to help lead them to their 17-6 win at Ridgefield in New Canaan’s last game of the regular season. The Rams finished 3-2 in the division and improved to 10-6 overall with their fourth straight victory.
Ridgefield finished 2-3 in the division after that loss and two days later the Tigers improved to 11-5 overall with a 19-9 home victory over Newtown in their last game of the regular season.
Ridgefield’s 14-5 home victory over Staples on April 17 was the big win which ultimately gave the Tigers the No. 4 seed and their home game in the first round of the FCIAC tournament.
The Staples Wreckers settled into the No. 5 seed with their 1-4 divisional record, and they finished the regular season 10-6 overall.
Fairfield Ludlowe had an undefeated 8-0 record to win the FCIAC East Division championship and snatch the No. 7 seed in the FCIAC tourney. The pivotal win for Ludlowe’s Falcons was their 14-9 road victory on May 10 at crosstown rival Fairfield Warde, which ended up with the No. 8 and final seed by finishing 7-1 in the division after winning its last three divisional games.
Fairfield Ludlowe took a 10-6 overall record into the FCIAC tournament and Fairfield Warde’s Mustangs finished 12-4 in the regular season.
Brien McMahon and Trumbull tied for third place in the FCIAC East Division with 5-3 records. Brien McMahon finished the regular season 8-6 overall, including a 9-7 win at Trumbull on May 15, and Trumbull was 10-6.
St. Joseph (7-8 overall) and Stamford (7-9 overall) finished tied for fifth place in the FCIAC East Division at 4-4.
The FCIAC has six teams in the current CT Girls Lacrosse Coaches Poll as Staples is ranked No. 8 and Greenwich (8-8 overall) completes the Top 10.
After the FCIAC foursome of No. 1 Darien, Wilton, New Canaan and No. 4 Ridgefield, Conard was ranked No. 5 and followed by Cheshire, New Fairfield, No. 8 Staples, Simsbury, and No. 10 Greenwich.
Those top three teams of Darien, Wilton and New Canaan have combined to be the past champions of all 20 conference tournaments from 2004-24 since Greenwich won the 2003 FCIAC championship.
Coach Lindley’s Darien Blue Wave had a streak of eight straight FCIAC titles in 2012-2019, winning a dozen conference crowns since 2006.
Darien has been a championship contender since the early years of girls’ lacrosse conference tournaments and has the record of 19 FCIAC championships since its first one in 1995.
New Canaan was the first official FCIAC champion in 1993 and is currently the defending champion. Last year the top-seeded Rams dethroned No. 3 seed Darien with a 7-2 victory in the conference final.
Seventeen days later New Canaan won the first Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Girls Lacrosse Tournament with a 10-5 victory over Darien in the state championship game. The CIAC expanded to a fourth classification as Class L was the largest class in previous years.
It was the third consecutive year that those two bordering town rivals matched up in the finals of both the FCIAC and state tournaments.
New Canaan nipped Darien, 14-13, in the 2022 state Class L championship game and the following year Darien’s Blue Wave avenged that in the 2023 Class L final with a victory by that identical score of 14-13.
Darien is ranked No. 5 in the latest 2025 Q-Collar Girls Top 25 National Rankings as of May 22 on the www.insidelacrosse.com website.
Darien traditionally schedules some of the best teams in the country for non-league games and one of Darien’s two losses this year was at top-ranked St. Anthony’s, 13-8, on April 15.
St. Anthony’s, located directly across the Long Island Sound from Darien in Huntington, N.Y., was undefeated at 17-0 and followed in the national rankings by No. 2 Episcopal (Pa.), Chatham (N.J.), Nyack (N.Y.), and Darien’s No. 5 Blue Wave.