This is it, folks. The home stretch.
We’ve officially entered the final week of the 2023 fall regular season, and a handful of local teams are fighting for their playoff lives. The race to climb inside of the top-32 in your division — or finish with a .500 record or better — is down to the final couple of games for our area athletes.
So how do things look for our hometown squads?
Well, with the release of the latest MIAA rankings on Friday morning, not too bad.
Out of the 22 local teams that could qualify for a state tournament (excluding golf, cheerleading), currently 12 of them are inside of their respective fields. Then you have teams like Triton field hockey (No. 38 in D3) and Georgetown boys soccer (No. 35 in D5) that are hovering just outside of the cutline.
But two points really stick out.
1. The “bubble” in Division 3 volleyball is a CAL-bonanza. Newburyport is safely inside of the field at No. 12, but, in order, Nos. 31-33 are: North Reading (4-12), Pentucket (5-10) and Triton (4-10). Now, none of them will of course be making it via the .500 rule, but it looks like one CAL team will be left out. Just which one? Pentucket has two tough games left traveling to both Newburyport and Lynnfield, while Triton has an all-important home match against the Hornets on Monday, before hosting Hamilton-Wenham on Wednesday.
2. CAL soccer is not viewed well on the state level. Last year, the Newburyport boys were undefeated and still ranked No. 9 in Div. 3 before making a run to the state title. The Clippers (10-3-2) aren’t as strong this year, but are still near the top of the league — with Lynnfield — and find themselves down at No. 21. Similarly, the Newburyport girls had just one loss last year and were the No. 2 seed. But this fall, the Clippers (10-3-3) are still strong yet find themselves down at No. 23. That’s a massive yearly swing.
Here are the latest local rankings.
With a note that the records listed are current through last Thursday’s (10/26) games, and do not reflect any results that happened over the weekend.
FIELD HOCKEY
Division 3
No. 2: Newburyport (15-1-0)
No. 26: Pentucket (6-8-2)
No. 38: Triton (2-11-1)
Division 4
No. 27: Amesbury (2-8-3)
FOOTBALL
Division 5
No. 10: Newburyport (5-1)
Division 6
No. 21: Triton (3-3)
No. 24: Pentucket (3-3)
Division 7
No. 8: Amesbury (4-1)
BOYS SOCCER
Division 3
No. 21: Newburyport (10-3-2)
No. 56: Pentucket (2-12-1)
No. 57: Triton (0-12-2)
Division 4
No. 47: Amesbury (3-9-2)
Division 5
No. 35: Georgetown (4-8-1)
GIRLS SOCCER
Division 3
No. 23: Newburyport (10-3-3)
No. 30: Pentucket (8-4-2)
No. 54: Triton (1-13-2)
Division 4
No. 38: Amesbury (3-11-1)
Division 5
No. 11: Georgetown (7-5-2)
VOLLEYBALL
Division 3
No. 12: Newburyport (12-7)
No. 32: Pentucket (5-10)
No. 33: Triton (4-10)
Division 5
No. 31: Georgetown (0-14)
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