Delaware Live’s surprise teams from 2022-23 season

Wilmington Friends Girls Soccer:  The Quakers girls soccer team was a very young team this season and they showed that the future would be bright in Division 2 girls soccer.  They started the season with a 9-0-1 record with a tie against a good DMA team.  They suffered their first loss against Archmere only to beat Saint Mark’s in their next match to get to 13-1-1.  They would get to the semifinals where the experienced Spartans would win 4-2.

 

Woodbridge Girls Basketball:   The Blue Raiders had a great basketball season this year as they would go 17-3 with two of these losses to Ursuline and Caravel.  They would have to go to Claymont and take on 6th seeded Archmere in the second round.  The Blue Raiders exploded in the fourth quarter to defeat the Auks 42-36.  Then they traveled to Cape Henlopen to battle the third seeded Vikings in the quarterfinals.  They outscored the Vikings 9-0 in the fourth quarter to seal a 48-34 win.  They would lose to Ursuline in the semifinals but what a great showing by the Blue Raiders

 

Conrad Baseball:  The Red Wolves had a great baseball season that saw their schedule loaded with the who’s who of baseball teams.  They finished 14-4 with wins over Sallies, Middletown, St Georges, Tower Hill, and Appoquinimink.  There 4 losses were to DMA, Saint Mark’s Caravel, and Archmere.  Conrad would beat Laurel in the second round.  In the quarterfinals the Red Wolves would walk it off in the seventh 6-5 over Sussex Tech.  The Red Wolves then would defeat Saint Mark’s 10-7 in the semifinals to advance to the championship.  They ran into a hot Seahawks team but had an amazing run to get to the championship

 

Delmarva Christian Softball:  The Royals had a softball season to remember and at one point had the top ranking by Delaware Live.  They started the season 10-0 with wins over Sussex Central, Indian River, Smyrna, Appoquinimink, and Padua.  They would lose in an extra inning battle to Caravel 5-4.  They would lose to Caravel again and 2-1 to Laurel to finish the regular season 15-3.  They would beat Padua 3-2 and Sussex Tech 5-0 to get to the semifinals.  There they ran into a hot Indian River team in the semifinals and lost a heartbreaker 2-1.

 

Red Lion Football:  The Lions football team was looking to improve on a tough 21 season and that wouldn’t be easy in the 2A District 3 conference.  The Lions would lose some early season games to Saint Mark’s and Caravel.  The Lins would get a big 20-19 win vs Delmar and would go a perfect 5-0 record at home to get a state tournament berth.  They would defeat Delmar in the first round before falling ro Saint Marks in the 2A quarterfinals

 

Wilmington Friends Lacrosse  

I think everyone was waiting to see who would be a team that would join the top 3 in the state semifinals.  The Quakers rode a hot start to their season to end the Sanford Warriors Independent Conference Championship reign.  The Quakers had wins over Tatnall twice Caravel, DMA and Tower Hill and finished the regular season 13-2.  The Quakers got the 4th seed and won home games over Appoquinimink and Tatnall to get to the state semifinals.  The Quakers then met Sallies and there magical season came to an end but they fought hard against the top seeded Sals and look to make a mark next season with the success they had this season

 

Archmere Girls Soccer  

The Archmere Auks soccer team had quite a year including an early season win at Middletown 2-1.  After a 6-0 record to start the year they would lose back to back games to #1 Saint Mark’s 5-2 and #2 Caravel 4-1.  The Auks would finish the regular season at 12-3.  The Auks faced top seeded Caravel in the semis and won 2-1 with a late PK goal.  The Auks then would face the Saint Mark’s Spartans in the championship.  The Auks scored early and often to jump out to a 6-1 halftime lead and would win their first championship by that final score.

 

Tanall Girls Lacrosse  

The Hornets had one goal in mind when the season started and that was to end Cape’s run.  The Hornets had a 14-1 record in the regular season then got by a good Archmere team in the semis.  The Vikings haven’t lost an in-state game since 2008 when they lost to St Andrew’s.  The Vikings would defeat St Andrew’s in the championship that year and haven’t lost one since.  The Hornets would fall behind early but rebound well to defeat Cape Henlopen 10-9 to end the Vikings run.

 

Smyrna Field Hockey  

The Eagles had one of their best regular seasons with a 13-2 record with both losses coming to last year’s champions Delmar and Cape Henlopen.  After a 1-0 win over Wilmington Charter in the semis the Eagles would get a rematch with Cape.  The game wou;d head to overtime where the Eagles would win their first Division 1 Field Hockey championship 2-1.

 

Tower Hill Volleyball

Going into the season Delaware Live had Tower Hill just outside the top 10 rankings but this team really had a great regular season including wins over Padua and Ursuline.  They finished the season at 13-2 and drew the ninth seed in the volleyball tournament.  They would beat 8th seeded Concord, top seeded Smyrna and fifth seeded Caravel to reach the state championship.  The Hillers then played a perfect championship match to defeat the two time defending champions St Marks in three sets to capture their first volleyball championship.