Camel highlights

• The Connecticut College women's hockey team will play in the New England Small College Athletic Conference Championship semifinals for the fourth time in the last five seasons on Saturday. The second-seeded Camels (15-7-3), ranked eighth in the country, are shooting for their first tournament title.

To reach Sunday's final at Middlebury (Vt.) College, Conn will have to knock off fifth-seeded Amherst in Saturday's semifinal. The two teams met way back in the season's opening weekend (Nov. 18-19), with Conn sweeping, 1-0 and 3-1. Host Middlebury and Bowdoin play in the other semifinal.

Freshman Samantha Estes set a program record for goals in a post-season game with three in a 5-2 quarterfinal win over Williams on Saturday. Estes has all seven of her goals this season in the last 10 games. The Camels tied last year's team for most overall victories in a season.

• The men's and women's swimming and diving teams will send a program best 15 competitors to the NCAA Division III national championships on March 15-18 in Shenandoah, Texas. The women's team will be represented by Anna Peterson, Valerie Urban, Juliette Lee, Maeve Wilber, Olivia Haskell, Danielle Fergus, Mary Erb, Lily Gribbel, Katie Hammond and Julia Klier. George Tilneac, Drake Freiberg, Mike Fothergill, Niko Brosnihan and A.J. Pite will represent the men's squad.

Mariners riding a wave

• Mitchell College baseball had a successful start to the season, winning two out of three games last weekend at the Armstrong Invitational in Fayetteville, N.C.  To prepare for the trip, the Mariners practiced in the parking lot of Ocean Beach Park in New London due to the condition of their field. The Mariners have basically rebuilt their starting pitching rotation but returned the heart of their lineup. The weekend's results backed that up, as the Mariners scored 31 runs and allowed 16.

Junior Garet Griffin earned New England Collegiate Conference player of the week honors, going 6-for-12 at the plate with a double, triple and five RBI in three games. He also stole home to account for the go-ahead run in 10th inning in a 7-5 victory over Methodist Saturday.

Junior left-hander Bryton Ferris received NECC pitcher of the week honors. He went seven strong innings to earn the win in a 19-4 rout of Elmira. He didn't allow an earned run, giving up seven hits while striking out four and walking one. He improved his career record to 8-2.

The Mariners head south against this weekend, starting a seven-game spring trip by facing Wheaton (Ill.) on Saturday in the Snowbird Classic in Port Charlotte, Fla.

• Sophomore Domenico Santiago made the NECC men's basketball third team and junior Mack Bertram-Gregory was named to the conference's all-sportsmanship team. Santiago followed up a NECC rookie of the year campaign last season with a strong sophomore year, leading the conference in rebounding (11.1) and double-doubles (13). He also led the team in scoring at 14.8 per game. He averaged 15.4 points and 11.5 rebounds in NECC games. Bertram-Gregory averaged 11.9 points and 3.7 rebounds after joining the Mariners in January.

• Jessica Shepherd capped her senior year by earning a spot on the NECC women's basketball third team while freshman Jessica Lohneiss made the all-conference sportsmanship team. In 25 starts, Shepherd averaged a career and team high 13.7 points per game. She became just the third Mariner in Division III history to score 1,000 career points, finishing with 1,040. She also is the program's all-time 3-point field goal leader with 174 in 95 career games.

Tracking the Bears

• Freshman Riley McNulty set a Coast Guard Academy men's lacrosse program single-game record with six points in 12-5 win over Lasell College in a season opener on Saturday. He had three goals and three assists for the Bears, who host Eastern Connecticut State University on Wednesday night. The program, which is just in its third year, has never won two straight to open the season. The Bears went 10-6 overall in 2016, a substantial improvement from a 4-10 mark in the inaugural 2015 season. Freshmen Logan Morin, a Norwich Free Academy graduate, and Tyler Grills of Pawcatuck joined the Bears this season.

Around the region

• UConn junior right-hander Wills Montgomerie was named the AAC pitcher of the week after earning the win and striking out a career-high in 6.1 innings against No. 25 Texas. He allowed four hits and walked two in the 2-1 victory.

• Ledyard graduate DeAnte Bruton helped lead Nichols College to its first Commonwealth Coast Conference tournament title and NCAA Division III tournament berth. Bruton, a 6-foot freshman guard, scored 12 points in a 67-64 win over Endicott College in the final on Saturday. He was named the CCC rookie of the year and finished the regular season second in the conference in scoring at 21.5 points per game. He also averaged 4.3 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.9 steals. Nichols will play Neumann on Friday in a NCAA first round game in Aston, Pa.

• Assumption College senior Allison Stoddard, an East Lyme graduate, joined the 1,000 career point club in a 68-49 Senior Day win over Franklin Pierce on Feb. 21. She finished the game with 20 points. She led the Greyhounds (19-8) in scoring this season at a career-best 12.2 points per game.

• Sophomore Courtney Payne of Waterford competed on the Rhode Island College 400-yard freestyle relay team at the recent New England Swimming and Diving Association Championship at the University of Rhode Island.

• Western Connecticut State University's baseball team will rely on several former area athletes, including Old Lyme's Bill Buscetto, a 2016 Little East Conference selection, and Ledyard's Bryan Harper, a senior catcher. Buscetto and Harper each had two hits and three RBI in a season-opening 12-9 win over Marymount (Va.) in a doubleheader sweep last weekend. Mystic's Andrew Fogarty started on the mound and earned the win in game two, allowing just one run and three hits in five innings while striking out two and walking one.

Also at WCSU, Ryan Reuling, a sophomore from Fitch, scored three goals for the men's lacrosse team in a season-opening 20-15 win over Mt. Saint Mary College last weekend.

• Heading into Monday's regular season finale, Central Connecticut State University freshman forward Cebria Outlow, an NFA graduate, was averaging seven points and 5.5 rebounds while appearing in 26 games.

• Fitch graduate Dakota Williams helped the Seton Hall men's swimming and diving team capture its first Big East Championship. Williams took first in two events, breaking his own school record in the 100 freestyle with a time of 44.86 seconds and posting a winning time of 20.40 in the 50 freestyle. The  sophomore also swam on the winning and school-record setting 400 freestyle relay team that finished in 2:58.14.

• Please send your college notes submissions to g.keefe@theday.com

— Gavin Keefe