The CIAC has released its pairings for the girls' lacrosse Class L, M and S tournaments and some local New Haven area teams appear poised to make a long post season run.
In Class L, Cheshire is the No. 1 seed and has the talent and depth to get to the championship game this season led on offense by Maria Blois, Emma Farrel, Kathleen Kallbian and Alyssa Hague among others. But it won't be easy for the Rams in the upper bracket who could potentially face No. 8 Ridgefield in the quarterfinals and No. 4 Staples in the semifinals. No. 2 Newtown and No. 3 Greenwich are the top challengers in the lower bracket.
In Class M, defending champion Darien, the No. 9 seed, is the is the team to beat. The Blue Wave have five losses but they are the result of one of the toughest schedules in girls lacrosse in the state.
No. 1 New Canaan, No. 3 Wilton and No. 6 Barlow are the top challengers for the Blue Wave.
Hand, led by goalie Christy Forrest, and Guilford, led by high scoring Riley Smith and Leigh Rooney, have the talent to advance in Class M. But Hand would have to get by New Canaan and Darien just to get to the semifinals.
In Class S, Shoreline Conference powers No. 1 Haddam-Killingworth and No. 12 North Branford have a solid shot to get to the championship game, but only one could do it since both would potentially meet in the semifinals. The Cougars are led on offense by Kiley Anderson and the Thunderbirds are led by high-scoring Emmy Dulak.
The top challengers for the Shoreline teams are No. 2 Granby and No. 3 Weston.

The CIAC released the pairings for the Class L, M and S boys' lacrosse tournaments and one noticeable item is Cheshire being in unfamiliar territoy - in a qualifying round in the Class L tournament.
No. 16 seed Cheshire, 8-10, hosts No. 17 Simsbury today (Friday) at 7 p.m. in the qualifying round game.
The Rams haven't had a complete team until recently with several players out due to injury and sickness. But the Rams have gotten healthy at the right time and should get to the first round where they would potentially face top seed Simsbury on Wednesday at Simsbury at 4:30 p.m.
The Rams have the talent front to back to pull off an upset or two. The wildcard could be goalie Will Devine who has talent.
Fairfield Prep and defending champion Ridgefield, both  among the top five in the Register's Top 10 poll all season, are the teams to beat in Class L. Ridgefield recently had a huge win against No. 1 ranked Darien (competing in Class M). Prep will be facing Hand today at 3 p.m. in the Southern Connecticut Conference final at Branford High.
In Class M, Darien is on a mission to win it all and will likely take no prisoners. The Blue Wave have nearly a dozen players headed to Division I-II colleges led by Case Matheis, ranked the No. 1 rectruit in the nation this season. Matheis has committed to play at Duke.
Locally, Guilford and Hand have the best shot to advance far in Class M but both are in very difficult brackets.
In Class S, Barlow, Weston and Granby are the teams to beat. Weston, ranked No., 10 in the Register's Top 10 poll the last two weeks, has the depth on both ends of the field to win it all.
Locally, Old Lyme and Notre Dame-Fairfield could pull off an upset or two in the first two rounds.