WOODBRIDGE - There's always an extended amount of pressure on the higher of two seeds in a high school state tournament volleyball match.

Everyone wants to be a champion. Better yet everyone wants to have a chance to be a champion, and therefore the first step is qualifying for the playoffs.

Sunday certainly wasn't a good day for Hamden football coach Scott Benoit.

Ignited by a pair of long touchdown runs by Kendrick Amaker, the North Haven football team crushed Jonathan Law 46-13 last Friday night in a Southern Connecticut Conference Division II battle at Vanacore Field.

A week after hanging with Hamden for the better part of the game, it would not have been surprising if the Lyman Hall football team came out flat against Cheney Tech last Friday night.

When the Sheehan football team traveled down I-91 toward New Haven last Friday afternoon, the thoughts of its potent passing game doing damage had to be fading quickly.

After the flu bug swept through the Hamden boys country team just prior to the recent CIAC Class LL championship race and badly hampered its results, all the Green Dragons were healthy for last Saturday's New England championship race at Wickham Park in Manchester.

After splitting a pair of contests with Amity in the regular season, the Hamden boys soccer team was ready to take home the rubber match in the CIAC Class LL second round.

Hamden boys soccer coach Joaquin Rodriguez has seen his team over the last handful of years struggle to score in the state tournament.

The Cinderella season for the Sacred Heart Academy soccer team has come to an end. Looking to advance to their first semifinal contest in the school's history, the Pacers were defeated by fourth-seeded RHAM in a rainy and windy contest in Hebron, 2-1

Not many observers gave the Sacred Heart Academy soccer team a chance when it traveled to play Waterford in the second round of the CIAC Class L state tournament.

After defeating Wethersfield in the first round of the Class L state tournament, the North Haven girls soccer team's season came to an end with a 1-0 loss to No. 2 Naugatuck in the second round last Wednesday.

The Hamden girls soccer team needed some late-season heroics to qualify for the CIAC Class LL state tournament. Winning three of its last four games and its final two, Hamden looked to ride the momentum in the state tournament.

When reflecting on the 2009 season, the Lyman Hall boys soccer team may look to what could have been. A bounce and a break here or there could have made the difference in a home game or traveling to Stratford to play No. 14 Bunnell.

The Sheehan field hockey team saw its season end in disappointing fashion last Monday, suffering a heartbreaking 3-2 overtime defeat to Weathersfield in the qualifying round of the Class M state tournament.