The CIAC fall sports tournament pairings were released Tuesday and the tournament will begin Friday for boys and girls soccer, field hockey and girls volleyball.
The state championships will take place the weekend of Nov. 16-17. Three state field hockey championships will be Nov. 16 at Wethersfield High, while eight boys and girls soccer finals will take place Nov. 16 and Nov. 17 at Trinity Health Stadium in Hartford. Four volleyball state championships will take place Nov. 16 at East Haven High School.
Here is a quick breakdown of each sport:
Boys soccer
Class LL: Hall, the defending Class LL champion, finished the regular season at 8-5-2 and will be the 18th seed. The Titans will travel to Enfield Saturday for their first tournament game and if they win, they will play top-seeded Notre Dame-West Haven in the second round. Glastonbury, the fifth seed, is playing without its head coach Chris Vozzolo (who was suspended for the rest of the season after an incident with officials). The Guardians, whose last loss in the regular season came to last year’s Class LL runner-up Stamford (2-0) on Sept. 14, will face Simsbury in the first round on Saturday. Glastonbury beat Simsbury 4-1 on Oct. 22. Glastonbury could potentially face Stamford again in the quarterfinals. The Guardians lost in the quarterfinals last year to Greenwich.
Class L: Berlin, who was set to face Glastonbury for the CCC tournament championship Tuesday night, is the top local seed in Class L at No. 4. Berlin will host Woodstock Academy Saturday at Sage Park in a first round game.
Class M: Ellington, which won the Class M title in 2022, is the fourth seed in M this year. Lewis Mills, the Class M defending champion, is the 26th seed after finishing the regular season 6-7-3.
Class S: Old Saybrook, which has won the last five Class S titles, is the eighth seed in Class S this year with an 11-3-2 regular season record. The Rams open the tournament Friday against Immaculate. Two of Old Saybrook’s losses are to No. 3 seed East Hampton and No. 4 seed Morgan. Somers is the No. 2 seed in Class S.
Girls soccer
Class LL: Simsbury, last year’s Class L champion, moved up to Class LL, where the Trojans are the 15th seed and will play No. 18 Glastonbury in the first round either Friday or Saturday. Glastonbury beat Simsbury in the last game of the regular season. Mercy, which won the SCC tournament championship 4-3 in overtime over Amity Monday and was the Class M champion in 2022, is the second seed in LL. The Tigers, who were the top seed in Class LL last year, lost in the semifinals to Notre Dame-Fairfield. St. Joseph, the defending LL champion, is the No. 1 seed.
Class L: Suffield, which lost to Bacon Academy in the Class M championship game last year 11-10 on penalty kicks, is the top seed in Class L this year. Suffield was undefeated last year until the championship game. The Wildcats have won six state titles but haven’t won a championship since 2010.
Class M: Defending champion Bacon Academy is the third seed in Class M this season and will host the winner of Hand-Northwest Catholic on Monday in a second round game.
Class S: Cromwell, which won the Class S title last year, is the No. 8 seed this year and will host No. 9 Terryville in a second round game Monday. Thomaston, last year’s runner-up, is the No. 3 seed.
Field hockey
Class L: Staples, the top seed in Class L, is the defending champion and has won or shared a title five times since 2016. Staples beat Darien 3-1 last year for the title; Darien is the No. 2 seed this year. The two teams were set to play each other in what could be a preview of the tournament final in the FCIAC championship game Tuesday night. Glastonbury, the No. 6 seed, opens the tournament Nov. 6 with 11th seed Hamden, which was slated to play Guilford in the SCC championship game Tuesday. Glastonbury (15-1) lost to Staples 2-0 in the Class L semifinals last year.
Class M: Branford, which won the Class M title in 2022, is the top seed in Class M and Guilford, which won in 2021, is No. 2.
Class S: Hand, which beat New Canaan 1-0 in overtime to win the Class M championship last year, has moved down to Class S and the Tigers (16-2) are the No. 1 seed. The Tigers, who were top seeded in the SCC tournament, lost to Guilford, 2-0 in the tournament semifinals Saturday. North Branford, last year’s Class S champion, is the third seed in Class S and just won the Shoreline Conference tournament title.
Girls volleyball
Class LL: Southington, the top seed in Class LL, was the LL runner-up last year to Darien, which is the third seed. The Knights finished 18-0 in the regular season. Darien won the title the last two years and Greenwich, the No. 2 seed, won in 2021. Southington last won a title in 2009.
Class L: Farmington, the defending champion, is the top seed this year. The River Hawks beat St. Joseph 3-2 last year in the championship game. They finished 19-1 in the regular season. RHAM, which finished 17-2 in the regular season, is the second seed. RHAM won its second straight Class M title last year after capturing the Class L title in 2021 and has won 10 state championships. Farmington and RHAM did not play each other during the regular season but both teams lost to Southington.
Class M: Barlow, last year’s Class M runner-up to RHAM, is the fourth seed in Class M this year and Granby is No. 3. Granby lost to Barlow in the quarterfinals last year, 3-1. Seymour, which also lost in last year’s quarterfinals, is the top seed in Class M.
Class S: Coventry, which was last year’s Class S champion, is seeded fifth this year and will open the tournament against the winner of St. Paul and Comp Sci on Nov. 6. The Patriots, who play a tough regular season schedule, have losses to Glastonbury (LL), Griswold and Granby (Class M) and Woodstock Academy (Class L). Valley Regional, the No. 2 seed, will also play its first game of the tournament Nov. 6.