The great success that is the Darien High School girls’ lacrosse program carries on.
The success of this program winning FCIAC and state championships in the same season occurred again this year to highlight a successful girls lacrosse season in the FCIAC.
So good was coach Lisa Lindley’s Darien Blue Wave this year that there was a successful defense of both championships in the FCIAC and state Class LL tournaments, a perfect 22-0 season, and then being ranked No. 2 in the final USA Lacrosse High School Girls National Top 25 poll.
Darien first won the 2026 FCIAC Girls Lacrosse Tournament championship with a 13-3 victory over New Canaan at Brien McMahon High School’s Jack Casagrande Field on May 28, and 16 days later on June 13 at Fairfield University’s Rafferty Stadium the Blue Wave secured its unbeaten season with a 13-4 victory over New Canaan in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Class LL Girls Lacrosse Tournament final.
Darien’s senior midfielder Anna Von Kennel was the FCIAC Player of the Year, the Connecticut High School Coaches Association named her the state’s Player of the Year for the second consecutive year, and she was also the Player of the Year to lead the 2026 GametimeCT All-State Girls Lacrosse First Team.
There were three Darien players among the six FCIAC players on that 12-player GametimeCT all-state first team and another six conference players were on the all-state second team.
Von Kennel, who will play at the University of Florida, and Wilton’s senior midfielder Rose Bilella, who will be a student-athlete at Marquette University, were the two conference players selected to the GametimeCT All-State Girls Lacrosse First Team and All-FCIAC Girls Lacrosse Tier 1 First Team for the second straight year.
Von Kennel had a combined 157 points from the last two years and led Darien in points both years. Coincidentally, she has scored 47 goals in each of those years. Von Kennel had 41 assists as a junior and 22 assists as a senior. This was her third consecutive year on the All-FCIAC Tier 1 First Team.
Bilella scored 42 goals and had a dozen assists and 86 draw controls in the 2025 season. She followed that up with a big senior year in which she scored 52 goals and had nine assists and 98 draw controls. In the last two years Bilella has compiled 94 goals, 21 assists, 115 points, and 184 draw controls.
Senior attack Cam Pokorny and junior midfielder Adriana Gromelski of Darien, New Canaan junior goalie Macyn Callahan, and Wilton junior midfielder Ally Phelan joined Von Kennel and Bilella as the six players selected to the 2026 All-FCIAC Tier 1 First Team and 2026 GametimeCT All-State First Team, and they were all a USA Lacrosse All-American.
Darien senior defenders Gigi Brown and Janie Slonieski, Greenwich senior attack Giselle DiPietro, Wilton senior goalie Sam McDonnell, and New Canaan senior attack Ashton Pinkernell were all selected to both the All-FCIAC Tier I First Team and the GametimeCT All-State Second Team. New Canaan senior midfielder Isabelle Janiga was also on the GametimeCT All-State Second Team.
Gromelski had three goals and two assists and was the named MVP, senior Lily Davenport also had a hat trick, Pokorny scored a pair of goals while Von Kennel contributed a goal and three assists to help lead Darien to its 21st FCIAC championship with that 13-3 victory over New Canaan.
Riley Schlafman had two goals and Pinkernell scored a goal for New Canaan.
Darien defeated Fairfield Warde in the opening quarterfinal round and Greenwich in the semifinals of the FCIAC tournament by the identical scores of 20-2.
New Canaan’s Rams defeated Wilton, 6-4, in the FCIAC semifinals after their 12-1 victory over Staples in the first round. Wilton cruised to an 18-1 victory over Fairfield Ludlowe and Greenwich defeated Ridgefield, 15-3, in the other quarterfinal games.
Pokorny, a future Virginia Cavalier, had four goals and an assist while Gromelski had three goals and an assist to lead coach Lindley’s Blue Wave to the program’s 22nd overall state championship with that 13-4 victory over New Canaan.
Morgan Hite also had a hat trick, while Von Kennel had two goals and two assists for the winners.
Schlafman scored two goals, Lauren Crisafulli had a goal and an assist, and Callahan had nine saves for New Canaan’s Rams, who finished with a 15-8 record and the No. 2 ranking in the Final 2026 CT Girls Lacrosse Coaches Poll which included six FCIAC teams being ranked among the top 10.
Coach Kristin Woods’ third-seeded Rams advanced to the state championship with a thrilling 9-8 semifinal victory over second-seeded Wilton in dramatic fashion.
After sophomore Lucy Detmer scored the eventual game-winning goal with just 10 seconds remaining in regulation, coach Meredith Meyran’s Wilton’s Warriors had a final offensive attack after winning the ensuing draw and Callahan made a great save in the last second on a low, hard shot.
Conference teams Darien (22-0), New Canaan (15-8) and Wilton (14-7) were ranked 1-3, respectively, and followed by Class L state champion Simsbury (20-1), Conard (19-2), and Class M state champion Daniel Hand (19-3) in that Final 2026 CT Girls Lacrosse Coaches Poll.
Also, from the FCIAC: Greenwich (9-11) was ranked No. 7, Ridgefield (10-9) was No. 8, and Staples (9-9) was tied for No. 9 with Cheshire (16-6).
Sarah Salce of Fairfield Ludlowe was the FCIAC Coach of the Year and Lindley was the CHSCA Class LL Coach of the Year.
There were 94 players who earned All-FCIAC honors in the designations of either Tier 1 First Team, Tier 1 Second Team, Tier 2 First Team, Tier 2 Second Team, and Honorable Mention.
The list of the recipients of All-FCIAC honors is on the link below:
2026 All-FCIAC Girls Lacrosse – FCIAC