It’s tournament time in a variety of sports up and down Delaware, and Catholic schools and athletes are competing in most of them. The lone sport still awaiting its tournament teams is baseball. Those playoff participants will be announced Monday night, and postseason play begins on Thursday.
Girls
Lacrosse
Tuesday
No. 3 Ursuline (13-3) vs. No. 1 Cape Henlopen (16-0), 7 p.m. at Dover High School. Ursuline travels to the state capital to meet the top seed in the tournament for the second time this season. The Vikings defeated the Raiders, 16-9, on May 10. The seven-goal margin of victory was Cape’s second-smallest of the season against Delaware foes.
No. 6 Padua (13-3) vs. No. 2 Archmere (14-2), 7 p.m. at Caravel Academy. This is a rematch of a regular-season game from May 1, which was a one-goal Pandas win. Archmere is itching to move past the semifinal after having its season end there the past two years, while the Pandas are charting new territory as one of the state’s youngest programs.
Thursday
Archmere vs. Cape Henlopen, 7 p.m. at Dover High School.
Soccer
Wednesday
No. 7 Newark Charter (11-5) vs. No. 2 Archmere (13-2), 8 p.m. at Caravel Academy. The Auks are battle-tested against most of the state’s top programs. They allowed just 13 goals all season, six of those in one game. They edged the Patriots, 1-0, on the road on April 2 on a goal by Anna Garcia. Newark Charter had the edge in shots and corner kicks in that one. This is a Division II quarterfinal-round match.
Thursday
No. 6 Polytech (11-4) vs. No. 3 Padua (11-3), 6 p.m. at Smyrna High School. The Pandas enter this postseason in a different position than most years, i.e., not the top seed. The open with the Panthers, who battled Padua in a 3-1 loss on April 11. In that game, Poly scored the first goal in the 50th minute before the Pandas responded with three goals in a 12-minute span. The Pandas had advantages of 17-4 in shots and 12-4 in corner kicks.
Boys
Volleyball
Salesianum is in the semifinal against Wilmington Charter. The date and time of the game is not listed online, but the other semifinal is Monday afternoon. This is not a DIAA event, but it still matters.
Lacrosse
Tuesday
No. 14 Milford (11-4) vs. No. 3 Salesianum (8-7), 7 p.m. at Tower Hill School. Don’t be fooled by the Sals’ record. They are where they should be in the seedings based on the quality of their opponents. Sallies met some of the toughest teams in the country this season after losing their best defenseman to injury early in the campaign. They have capable scorers and lost just one game to an in-state foe this year. High-scoring Milford won its final six regular-season games.
Wednesday
No. 12 Smyrna (12-3) at No. 5 Archmere (11-4), 4 p.m. The Auks and Eagles combined seven losses all have come to teams in the state tournament. Smyrna will have to contend with Archmere’s prolific scoring and size. The Eagles also can fill up the net. According to available schedules, this is the first meeting between the two schools in boys lacrosse in at least nine years.
Saturday
The quarterfinals will be held Saturday at sites and times to be determined.
Baseball
Thursday
First-round of the state tournament.
Saturday
Second round of the state tournament.
Tennis
Monday
Quarterfinal action for boys and girls, 3:30 p.m. at various locations. Updated brackets are available here.
Tuesday
Semifinal action for boys and girls, 2:30 p.m. at St. Andrew’s School, Middletown.
Wednesday
Finals for boys and girls, 1:30 p.m. at St. Andrew’s School, Middletown.
