What a night of girls prep hockey.
The NEPSAC girls Elite 8 quarterfinals brought high-scoring wins, a big upset and a tight game that knocked out the defending champions.
Meanwhile, the Large and Small School tournaments featured more than their share of drama with overtimes, upsets and more.
Here's how it all shook out:
Elite 8
- No. 1 Williston Northampton 7, No. 8 Groton 2
- No. 2 Loomis Chaffee 7, No. 7 Cushing 2
- No. 6 BB&N 4, No. 3 Dexter Southfield 1
- No. 5 Phillips Andover 2, No. 4 Nobles 1
Large School
- No. 1 Thayer 6, No. 8 St. Paul’s 3
- No. 2 Deerfield 3, No. 7 Milton Academy 2 (OT)
- No. 6 Kent 2, No. 3 Berkshire 1 (OT)
- No. 5 Tabor 2, No. 4 Phillips Exeter 1
Small School
- No. 1 New Hampton 4, No. 8 Frederick Gunn 1
- No. 2 Rivers 8, No. 7 Mount St. Charles 0
- No. 6 St. Mark’s 2, No. 3 Governor’s 0
- No. 5 St. George’s 5, No. 4 Lawrence Academy 1
I did my best to keep tabs on everything going on, but I only have so many screens and the bandwidth for so many streams at once.
With Nobles eliminated, a new Elite 8 champion will be crowned. Williston's chase for a third title in four years is still on.
For those keeping score at home, I went 3-for-4 in my Elite 8 predictions. I didn't necessarily get the scores right either, but hey, a win's a win. Either way, that's right, you won't have to hear about my perfect streak with my Elite 8 predictions anymore. It was nice while it lasted. In your scorebooks, my predictions go down as 3-for-4 in the Large School and 2-for-4 in the Small School, sitting 8-for-12 overall.
Now, all eyes turn to Saturday's semifinals, especially when Williston and Andover battle it out in a rematch of last year's semis and the 2023 championship.
We'll unpack the matchups across all three tournaments and my fool-proof predictions in the coming days. For now, let's dive into takeaways from the quarterfinals.
