Girl Lax Updates

Amelia Fordyce

Senior Captain Katie Elders.

The Darien girls lacrosse team beat the Wilton girls lacrosse team last Friday. Darien led the game with 6-4 at halftime and 8-4 in the second half. With two goals from Sarah Jacques, Darien secured its win. The score was 10-6. Darien is currently 10-0 in the league and 13-2 overall. Wilton is currently 10-5 overall and 6-3 in the league. With this win the Darien girls lacrosse team continues to have an undefeated FCIAC season.

Darien Girls Tennis Team Loses Semi-Finals to Wilton

Libby Markham

Senior Quin Wolters and Caroline Hojsgaard playing in the semi-finals.

This past Thursday, May 16th, the Darien Varsity Girls Tennis team played Wilton in the FCIAC semi-finals.

After a season of 16 wins and 1 loss, the team was the number one seed for FCIACs and dominated their competition. With one of their top players injured, the team had to shift around their lineup, making the match a difficult one for the team.

Senior Quin Wolters described her doubles match with her partner, Junior Caroline Hojsgaard. “Caroline and I put up a good fight,” Wolters said. “It’s unfortunate it didn’t turn out in our favor but I’m really proud of my team.”

The final score was 5-2. The team will not play in the FCIAC finals this year, but will compete in CIACs later this month.

Darien Girls Golf Victorious Over St. Joseph

Megumi Murao 

Junior Eliza Koorbusch. Courtesy of Koorbusch.

The varsity Darien Girls Golf Team traveled to Trumbull last Thursday (5/2) to take on St. Joseph High School at Tashua Knolls Course. Darien brought home a victory shooting 193, while St. Joseph shot 216. Darien High School junior and team captain Eliza Koorbusch shot an impressive 43. Her teammates followed with superb scores. Senior Ashley Amirsakis shot 46, sophomore Emily Fischer shot 57, junior Charlotte Keane shot 54, and junior Kerry McDermott shot 50. Although Darien ranks higher than St. Joseph, the win serves as a major confidence booster following the previous game. The Darien Girls Golf Team bounced back from a rough loss one game prior against Fairfield Warde. Koorbusch commented after the win: “It shows a lot of improvement for some of us compared to earlier scores in the season.” Darien will attempt to start a winning streak and finish the second half of the season strong as they welcome Trumbull High School on Monday (5/6). The home game will take place at Wee Burn Country Club at 3pm.

CBC Sweeps Founder’s Day Regatta

By Neirad Staff

This past Sunday, May 5th, the Connecticut Boat Club (CBC) attended the 60th annual Founder’s Day Regatta at Lake Waramaug State Park. 

CBC is an all girls crew team based in Norwalk that is not a Darien High School affiliated team but has many DHS students on its roster. This weekend the top 20 varsity athletes and 10 Novice athletes competed this weekend. Some of those athletes included DHS seniors Catherine Garrett and Vivi Van Ingen, juniors Julia Abbruzzese and Flynn Woodring, and sophomores Kaela Majamador and Isabelle Garrett. 

CBC lined up six boats across with a floating start against some of the top prep schools in the area including Kent, Greenwich Academy, Choate, and Deerfield. 

Founder’s Day is a 4+ only event; CBC raced fours from the 1V to 5V category and two fours in the Novice category. 

Heats were in the morning and the varsity boats raced down the 1500 meter course in the hopes of placing in the top three in order to move on to the grand finale in the afternoon. CBC went 5-5 in first place finishes in the morning races by extreme margins (some races were won by multiple boat lengths of open water!). 

Then came the Novice races after lunch. The CBC A boat won by almost a full minute (pretty much unheard of) and the B boat also won its final by a generous margin, moving the team into 7 for 7 on the day’s races.

Following the novices came the finals for the rest of the varsity team where every boat won its grand final making the club’s record 12-12. 

This was the first time ever CBC has won every single race they were entered in both heats and finals. 

This amazing performance also won the team the overall points trophy in the girls category. Junior Flynn Woodring said “It was a great day full of a lot of team support and excitement from seeing every boat do so well. The trophy and medal ceremony where we were able to hear our names called for each Gold medal and then our whole team called for the points trophy was really special”. 

Next week CBC will travel to both Lake Waramaug again for the Kent Invitational and Lowell in Massachusetts, and in two weeks they will have their Regional Championships in Lowell as well!  

Varsity Softball Wins Rivalry Game Against New Canaan

Darien’s Kalle Halverson pitches during a spring game.

Courtesy of DAF.

By Natalie Vasileff 

On Friday, May the fifth, the Darien Varsity Softball team faced off against the New Canaan Rams, leading to the win of 8-5 over the opposing team. With a seven-run fifth inning, the Wave opened up with a 8-1 lead and then successfully held knew Canaan off to land the 8-5 win. After losing 12-0 against the Ludlowe team, this was a quick bounce back for the Wave players. After losing the previous game, the girls found that their defense was lacking in sharpness and that balls could have been hit a lot harder. After improving these techniques, the DHS team found themselves triumphant after working so hard.

“We are a young team dealing with a lack of numbers and experience,” junior Rosali Pirone said, “but we show up and give it 100% effort every time we step on the field which is all anyone can ask for.”

Make sure to support the Blue Wave Varsity Softball team at their next game against Staples at the Green Farms Elementary School at 7 p.m.!

Darien Varsity Rugby Come Out 17-12 Victors in Staples High School

Hugh Hearns

Darien gained some experience under lights during a night-time victory at Staples High School Monday night in a tightly contested game. Darien however, once again dealt with early adversity as handling errors and a stagnant offense plagued the team early on. Staples put up seven points on their first possession, recycling the ball through strong phases of play and eventually powering it over the line line using their pack. This early score seemed to give Darien life however, as the team began to make plays and the offense came to life. Soon, Scrum-Half Hugh Hearns found Flanker Christian Nawrocki on a crash ball, and Nawrocki went on a powerful 20 meter run to score Darien’s first try. Staples responded, putting up one more try up to end the first half with a 12-5 advantage. Darien came back out quickly in the second half, scoring a quick try through Fly Half Andrew Donovan, who then converted his own score to tie the game at 12 points apiece. Darien struck once again when Staples had no chance to respond, touching down in the dying moments of the game to take a 17-12 victory on the road. Darien plays again on Friday night at 6:30 pm under the lights at DHS Stadium against the Southington Blue Knights.

Domination of the Blue Wave

Sofia Bender

Tyler Herget serves with great skill at New Canaan game on April 24. Courtesy of Dave Stewart.

With 12 athletes on the court, the intensity between Darien High School and Ridgefield High Schools boys varsity volleyball team was enormous. On April 29th at 4 pm, DHS held the boys varsity game against the strong Ridgefield tigers.

The game begins with Ridgefield serve, but quickly Darien wins the first point of the match within seconds. Tyler Herget, #8, returns the serve, and begins adding points for Darien. In minutes the score turns to 4-0 Darien. Each serve with strength, Herget continues to shock Darien fans with his incredible abilities. Darien’s score continues to increase, before the break the score is 10-0.

With a short break to regroup, both teams were ready to dominate. Ridgefield scores seconds after the first whistle, score becomes 10-1. Continuing a triumphant run, Jack Roberson, #13, raises the score to 12-1 Darien.

The adrenaline runs through each player. Suddenly, Ridgefield makes a point bringing the score to 15-2. Knowing that Darien has a huge advantage, Ridgefield may still have the chance to catch up. Nik Tinaj begins his first serve of the game, but is unable to serve over the net. This changes Ridgefields score to 22-4. Darien with an immense lead is close to winning the first match. Moments later, Darien wins the first match with an amazing score of 25-5.

After a three minute break, both teams are ready to play once again. In seconds, Darien and Ridgefield are tied with a score of 1-1.  John Barsanti, #5, serves the ball and skims the net, and unexpectedly falls on Ridgefields side of the court. Although Darien has the lead with a score of 10-2, Ridgefield scores a point when Tinaj misses the ball.

Ridgefield begins to score, but once again Herget is ready for the win. Increasing Darien’s score to 17- 8, Ridgefield continued close to their heels. Roberson and Tinaj try blocking a sudden spike over the net, but are unable to save bringing the score to 19-10. Darien successfully wins the match with a score of 25-12.

Just beginning the third match, Herget rapidly brings the score up to 2-0. On Herget’s third serve, the ball hits the net, score becomes 2-1. Minutes of intensity continue, hit one after another, the ball falls on Ridgefield’s side and victory is rejoiced for Darien has won another point, score 11-5.

As Ridgefield continues to fight for the win, Darien keeps up the heat and brings the score to 17-8. Suddenly, junior varsity player, Zarek Swetye enters the game and begins to play like a pro. The intensity continues through every second of the game, and the score is brought to 20-12.

Frank Pirone, #10, enters the court and the crowd goes wild. All at once, Darien scores once again, 22-12. Three points away from winning the match, Dairen dominates and completes the game with a score of 25-13 in the final match.

Darien had the ability to win each match with an immense lead. With dedicated Coach, Laurie LaRusso, continually strives to enhance each athletes skills.  Shown through the boys accomplishments, there is a substantial amount of commitment placed into this team. Each fan in the stands was impressed with the teams technique. To experience Darien’s boys varsity volleyball team definitely view their schedule found on the Darien High School website and enjoy another energetic achievement.  

Wave Softball Tops Trinity Catholic 19-1

Grace Carlo

Senior Captain Sydney Fagerstrom. Courtesy of DAF. 

On Saturday April 27th, the Softball team faced the Trinity Catholic Crusaders at the top of the oval. The Wave mercied Trinity in the 5th inning with a final score of 19-1. Senior Caroline Krueger lead the Wave offensively with 2 home runs and 8 RBIs. Junior Grace Carlo and sophomore Maddie Conte also came up big totalling in with 1 hit and 2 RBIs each. On the mound, freshmen Kalle Halverson took the W pitching 5 straight innings. "It was a great feeling to add a big win like this to our record" sophomore Valeria Henao said. "It's really helping us keep our heads up for the rest of the season". 

The Wave's next home game is Wednesday May 1st vs. Fairfield Ludlowe.