Good morning, readers. Today, we’ll have our annual fast-paced presentation of numerous tournament games in what we call TopOfTheCircle.com On-The-Go. Today, we see three state finals in Pennsylvania, five in New Jersey, three in Massachusetts, four in Virginia, and three in Connecticut.
In addition, there will be four sectional championships in California, six state semifinals in New York, and six semifinals in the New England Private Schools Athletics Council.
We’ll be posting small blurbs here on the blog, focusing on one game at a time in our “whiparound” style. It’s something you’re seeing more and more of in many sports, and I’d like to think field hockey can one day have its own professional video presence for this kind of thing.
We’ll be here all day until our hard stop at the end of the NJSIAA Non-Public final sometime around 6 p.m. Until then, make sure you hit the refresh button in your browser to see what’s going on up to the minute. Unlike our liveblog, we’re writing from top-down instead of bottom-up.
8:30 a.m. PRESHOW — Today, there will be around 35 games taking place from La Jolla, Calif. to Virginia Beach, Va.
One observation to make about some of these games is that a good portion of them are rematches. Some are from the regular season, such as the New Jersey Non-Public final at 4 p.m. between Summit Oak Knoll (N.J.) and Cherry Hill Camden Catholic (N.J.). These two sides met twice in a week, Oak Knoll taking a 1-0 win on September 28, and Camden Catholic taking a 2-1 win on October 5. The third meeting will, I believe, also be close.
In Virginia, the VHSL finals will feature Yorktown Tabb (Va.) and Poquoson (Va.) who met just a couple of weeks ago in the regional final which saw both teams matriculate to the Class 3A bracket. In Class 6A, Arlington Yorktown (Va.) will be going for its second consecutive state title, meeting Oakton (Va.) for the first time since the regional final in Region D.
In Pennsylvania, all three state finals are replays of district finals played two weeks ago. In Class AAA, it’s a District 1 rematch between Malvern Villa Maria (Pa.) against Tredyffrin Conestoga (Pa.). In Class AA, it’s Lititz Warwick (Pa.) and Dillsburg Northern York (Pa.), who played the District 3 final, while two more District 3 sides, Elliotsburg West Perry (Pa.) and Boiling Springs (Pa.) will contest the Class A final.