Handicapping the Early Bracket

UPDATED

Several games open up tonight in the D2 North brackets, and it's a lot like conference and BCS play in college football. Overall, the strength historically is in the Central bracket, and we can look at several of the early games.

Stoneham hosts Bedford on the "other" side of the bracket. Stoneham relies on three players above all, Sam Trant, Cristina Dakoyannis, and setter Krissa Leong. Leong is consistent and has good overall play, and Trant, considering her sophomore status is a talent. Stoneham has an excellent chance to go to Andover but will rely heavily on Trant playing at a high level in the post-season.

The best game of the night may be Bishop Fenwick hosting Winchester. Fenwick, last year's D2 North finalist, has excellent defense and Winchester has shown steady improvement during their time in the Middlesex League. Fenwick has a couple of local players, Anna Witkowski and Jen Crovo. Based on their defense, Fenwick deserves favorite status.

Finally, Burlington travels to Burke. The city teams have considerable handicaps against what I'll call the "mid-majors" to extend the football analogy, and Burlington is a prohibitive favorite to win and face Melrose on Monday.

But there's an old saying, "that's why they play the games." And apologies if I've got any of the spelling wrong!

Today's results. No prediction errors.