Darien may have lost the first three times to New Canaan this spring, but then Darien won yet another state championship and that enabled the Blue Wave to leapfrog over previously-undefeated New Canaan and into the top spot in the Final 2021 Top 10 Girls Lacrosse Coaches Poll.
Darien and New Canaan were ranked No. 1 and No. 2, respectively, as the FCIAC dominated the final rankings with all four teams in the top four and six teams in the top seven.
Darien finished 18-3 with all three of those losses against New Canaan – twice during the regular season and the third time in the FCIAC tournament final by a 7-4 margin.
After Darien beat New Canaan, 8-4, in the semifinals of the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference Girls Class L Lacrosse Tournament, coach Lisa Lindley’s Blue Wave won its 19th state championship with a 14-6 victory over Fairfield Ludlowe.
The voting from the 13 coaches for the No. 1 ranking was very close. Darien received eight first-place votes and 125 points, just four more points than New Canaan (20-1), which received the other five first-place votes.
Ludlowe’s run to the Class L championship game enabled the Falcons to finish No. 3 with their 17-4 overall record.
Wilton was that fourth FCIAC team among the top four as the No. 4 Warriors finished 12-5.
Guilford (19-2) nipped Joel Barlow, 11-10, in the Class M state championship game to earn the No. 5 ranking.
Staples and Greenwich, a pair of FCIAC teams which finished with identical 10-7 records, were ranked sixth and seventh, respectively.
Barlow (18-3) was ranked eighth.
Ridgefield (8-8), from the FCIAC, and Class S state champion New Fairfield (17-3) each received 22 polling points and were tied for ninth.
FCIAC member St. Joseph (12-6) received the 15th most points as one of the other six teams statewide in the “Others receiving votes” category.