Anything can happen in the MIAA tournaments.
That wasn't necessarily the case last season as the No. 1 seeds both won, with St. Mary's taking it home in Division 1 and Duxbury repeating in Division 2.
Nevertheless, there was plenty of drama along the way. SMH needed three overtimes in a marathon thriller against Notre Dame (Hingham). They also came close to upsets against seventh-seeded Shrewsbury and 11th-seeded Archbishop Williams. In D1 alone, four of the top 10 seeds didn't make it to the quarterfinals.
Duxbury's run in D2 almost ended in the quarterfinals in a one-goal win over Milton, then the No. 9 seed. You also had a No. 11 seed in Marshfield knocking off No. 3 Burlington in the D2 quarterfinals, and No. 27 Leominster taking down No. 6 Longmeadow in the first round.
So, what about this season? There's been plenty of parity around the region once again, and it's a perfect time to take stock of where things stand, especially with the end of the regular season in just about two weeks. Before we know it, the brackets will be released on Feb. 22 and the tournaments will begin on Feb. 24.
In this story, we’ll look at the favorites in D1 and D2, the teams who will contend near the top and some sleeper teams who could make a whole bunch of noise further down the depth chart.
Let's dive in.
