Old Lyme — The nerves were clanging around the heads (and stomachs) of the Old Lyme High School girls’ lacrosse team prior to Thursday’s CIAC Class S quarterfinal against Weston.

The Wildcats are the top seed; Weston eighth, albeit a deceptive eighth. This was Weston, the 2011 and 2013 Class S champion. This was Weston, hailing from Fairfield County, the state’s lacrosse heartland. This was Weston, which whacked Old Saybrook, Old Lyme's Baldwin Bridge rival, by six goals in April.

Those nerves could’ve overrun Old Lyme when the Trojans rallied to tie the game with 19 minutes left. Instead, the Wildcats got tough. They scored six unanswered goals and went on to win 16-9.

“We were really nervous because this team beat Old Saybrook, which we lost to twice,” Old Lyme’s Sydney Cowell said. “We went in with a winning attitude, though. We wanted to come in really nice and strong.

“When it came to the pressure, we rose above it.”

The Wildcats (18-2) will play fifth-seeded Granby in Tuesday’s semifinals at a site and time to be determined.

Granby downed fourth-seeded Waterford 16-2.

Old Lyme is no slouch, as evidenced by its record and it advancing to its second straight state semifinal. Still, it was well aware of Weston’s prowess. It routed second-seeded Old Saybrook 12-6 (April 14). And Old Saybrook beat Old Lyme in two of their three meetings, including a last-minute 13-12 loss in last Thursday’s Shoreline Conference final.

You get the picture.

“We were so amped up to go,” Old Lyme head coach Emily Macione said. “We talked about (Weston) and we definitely had questions; how we were going to do? But we’ve been spending a lot of time talking about working as a team, that every sort of piece needs to come together, and I think that we played our best game of this season today.”

Sloane Sweitzer had three goals and seven assists for the Wildcats and Cowell had five goals and two assists. Also, Lauren Quaratella had three goals and an assist, Maggie Berger two goals and an assist and Abby Berger scored twice.

Catie Quaratella added a goal and Hannah Guenther had 15 saves.

The Trojans (10-7-1) scored twice in a 43-second span to tie the game at 6 with over 23 minutes remaining.

Weston tied it again at 8 with 18 minutes, 50 seconds remaining.

Old Lyme responded by winning the next six faceoffs and, not so coincidentally, scored all six times. Sweitzer had a goal and two assists during that run and Cowell a goal and an assist.

“A lot of the stuff that we’ve been doing in games, but not everything clicking, today came together,” Macione said.

n.griffen@theday.com

Twitter: @MetalNED