Boys' Volleyball: First Round Games (Tues 5/31 and Wed 6/1)

Instead of going in chronological order like I normally do, I am going to follow the bracket order, WITH PREDICTIONS:

CLASS L

(9) Glastonbury @ (8) Xavier @ 7pm on Wednesday 6/1
-The winner of this match gets to play number one seed and undefeated Cheshire.  Just over a week ago, on Tuesday 5/24, Xavier beat Glastonbury 3-1 on the road.  However, Xavier is extremely inconsistent like, for example, they lost 0-3 at home last Wednesday to Daniel Hand, which they beat 3-0 at home two weeks prior.  Glastonbury, although not as good as they normally are, still has a good team this year that just wasn't better than Newington or Southington (or Masuk or Enfield, who also beat Xavier).

(13) Norwich Free Academy @ (4) Ridgefield @ 4pm on Tuesday 5/31
-NFA, the last team in the Class L tournament, had an up and down season almost beating Fermi early in the season, beating Lewis Mills twice, and upsetting Enfield, but they lost to every other good team they faced, including Fermi 0-3 in their last game of the season.  Ridgefield has been solid all season, only losing four games (only 3 counted for states): twice to Darien (#1 in Class M), once to Staples, who they went on to beat 3-2 one week later in Ridgefield, and then again to Staples 1-3 exactly one week after beating them and two weeks after the first loss to them, this time in the FCIAC tournament semifinals at Fairfield Ludlowe High School.

(12) Simsbury @ (5) South Windsor @ 5pm on Tues 5/31
-Simsbury's 8 wins are over five CCC opponents that are a combined 13-77, and they split with two of them, meaning they lost to 2-16 Coanrd and 7-11 Bulkeley.  In other words, they are just the best of the worst and things could get ugly here as South Windsor beat Fermi, Enfield, Wethersfield and then a lot of the same teams Simsbury beat as well.  Interestingly, South Windsor lost 2-3 to Glastonbury and only played Southington once and Newington not at all, hence why they only have three losses compared to G-bury's seven.

(10) Amity @ (7) Greenwich @ 4pm on Tues 5/31
-Both teams have won 9 games but Greenwich played and lost 2 less games, giving them the substantially higher win percentage.  Amity's big wins were Daniel Hand and Oxford and Greenwich's were just Bridgeport Central twice.  The difference may be that Greenwich has the experience from playing Ridgefield, Staples and Darien but they only played one match that went to five sets, a 3-2 win over Bridgeport Central in the last game they played, just under two weeks ago on 5/18.  Amity meanwhile has the experience of playing Xavier and Cheshire (and Darien) and five five-set matches, 3-2 wins over Hand, Oxford (teams they split with) and Lewis Mills and 2-3 losses to Xavier and Hand.  The winner plays defending champion, (2) Southington.

(11) Danbury @ (6) Bridgeport Central @5pm on 5/31
-A really good FCIAC showdown right here where the winner gets to advance to play the team that won Class L for four years straight before Southington dethroned them last year, always dangerous (3) Staples.  Central is 12-6 to Danbury's 10-8 and one can point to the difference literally being that Central beat Danbury both times during the regular season, 3-1 on 4/13 and 3-2 on 4/27.  However, those results don't mean much since the last time these two met was over a month ago and that match went five sets!  Also, it is very hard to beat a team three times.  Their wins and losses are almost identical other than that, forming a triangle with Greenwich that Central lost to twice (0-3 and 2-3) but Danbury beat twice (3-0 and 3-0) and that Central lost a fluke game to Kolbe Cathedral while Danbury lost to Cheshire in their season opener and only non-FCIAC or SWC opponent (Central has none).  This should be a good match; the key will be whoever has been practicing better since their last game, losses for both teams.

PREDICTIONS: Xavier 3-2 over Glastonbury; Ridgefield 3-0 over NFA; South Windsor a close 3-0 over Simsbury; Amity 3-2 over Greenwich; and Bridgeport Central vs Danbury could go either way but I'll go with home court advantage and take Central 3-2.

CLASS M

(9) Farmington @ (8) Enfield @ 7pm on Tuesday 5/31
-In the most interesting first round Class M match-up, these two teams will repeat their last game of the regular season at the same location with a trip to (1) Darien on the line.  Enfield took that game 3-1, just like they won at Farmington 3-1 in the first match of the season; ironic, I know.  Don't count Farmington out of this one as not only is it the playoffs now but they have plenty of quality wins (6 seed Wolcott Tech twice and splitting with 10 seed Wetehrsfield), just like Enfield (split with 5 seed Fermi and South Windsor, beat Glastonbury, but lost to WT and NFA).  Farmington doesn't have a bad loss, like Enfield does to NFA, unless you count twice to7 seed Daniel Hand.  Unfortunately, they don't match-up well with Enfield and that is who they are playing first round!

both (4) Bloomfield and (5) Fermi have first-round byes

(10) Wethersfield @ (7) Daniel Hand @ 7pm on Tues 5/31
-Interesting match-up here because Hand beat Farmington twice whereas Wethersfield split with them and that is really the only quality wins for either of these teams.  Otherwise, these teams just lost to the good teams in their conference and beat the bad ones (or in Hand's case, they scheduled the bottom of the SWC to inflate their record too).  Wethersfield's schedule has been peppered with quality and close games though so I think that helps them a bit.  However, I'll give you some other stats: Hand is 5-1 in five-set matches, only losing to Amity, who they later beat in five whereas Wethersfield is 1-3, only beating Wolcott Tech, who they later lost to 1-3.  Also, Hand is 7-2 at home but if you remove 0-3 losses to Cheshire and Darien, the #1 seed in the L and M respectively and a fluke 3-1 win over Xavier (without their setter), the Tigers are a perfect 6-0.  I think you know who I'm picking.  Winner travels to (2) Masuk, first team to beat Staples in 116 matches, in the quarterfinals.

(11) Oxford @ (6) Wolcott Tech @ 5pm on Tues 5/31
-For those of you wondering, much like I was, how Oxford made the playoffs, here is your answer: their nine wins came from four opponents with a combined 10-61 record and then one upset of 9-7 Amity.  To their credit, the did push 10 seed Daniel Hand to five sets both times they faced them, Amity to five sets the second time around and Bridgeport Central to five sets late in the season (two weeks ago).  On the other hand, Wolcott Tech has 14 wins including the likes of twice over Wethersfield and Enfield, a split with Bloomfield (2-3 in the loss last Thurs 5/26) and, most importantly, 3-0 twice over Oxford.  Three of their four losses have 2-3 and the other one was 1-3 to bitter rival and defending Class M champion, Lewis Mills.

PREDICTIONS: Enfield 3-2 over Farmington; Daniel Hand 3-1 (maybe 3-2 but Hand is the hotter team right now) over Wethersfield; and Wolcott Tech 3-0 over Oxford.