Highlight Reel: Lacrosse Teams Almost Perfect in First Round of Playoffs

It was a busy week in high school sports in and around Birmingham. Here are this week's top four moments:

1. Birmingham area girls lacrosse teams perfect in opening rounds: In one of the closest games in the first round of lacrosse regionals, Birmingham Unified beat Bloomfield Hills Lahser 13-12. Carly Signorello was the leading scorer for Birmingham with five goals, helping her team advance to the Division 1 regional semifinals.
   
   Birmingham will play Grosse Pointe South at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Troy. Marian will play in the second game that night at Troy, playing Grosse Pointe North at 7 p.m.
   
   Marian breezed past Troy in the first round on Thursday with a 16-5 win. Antonia Violante, Kathleen Bergmann and Holly Frederick each led the way for the Mustangs; Violante had four goals while her two teammates had three goals apiece.
   
   In Division 2, Country Day was the only team to play in a pre-regional game. It beat Temperance Bedford on Monday 22-2. The extra game didn’t do anything to slow the Yellowjackets down, though. They came right back on Wednesday and beat Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard 18-7.
   
   Country Day will play Farmington Hills Mercy in the regional semifinal game at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Ann Arbor Skyline.
2. Brother Rice and Country Day boys lacrosse advance: Brother Rice didn’t break a sweat in the first round of regionals with a 25-0 shutout win over Saginaw Heritage. The Warriors are after a seventh straight state championship and they looked in perfect form on Thursday. They play the winner of Bloomfield Hills Andover and Midland on Tuesday at a location to be determined.
   
   Country Day also looked good in its first round regional game. The Yellowjackets beat East Lansing at home 14-2, setting up a game against Flint Powers Catholic at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Holt.
   
   The only Birmingham area team not to advance out of the first round was the boys team from Birmingham Unified. .
3. Groves baseball’s winning streak ends at 18 games: The Falcons lost for the first time in 28 days, but they sure had one heck of a run in May.
   
   Groves won at home to start the week over Royal Oak 12-4 on Monday and then came back on Tuesday to beat Cranbrook 13-6. On Friday, the team needed a three-run home run from Jake Balicki to survive a 6-5 scare against West Bloomfield at home.
   
   At the Bay City John Glenn Invitational, the Falcons beat Canton in the first round 5-3. The winning streak was then snapped in the finals against John Glenn; the Falcons were shutout 4-0 by the host team.