NEPSAC girls soccer tournament picture (Oct. 22): Groton slips out of Class B's top eight as Tabor moves in and Austin Prep moves up in A

Tabor moved into the Class B top eight in the tournament-picture table and Groton dropped out, with Dana Hall eighth at .545. In Class A, Austin Prep is 7-0-3 and second behind Taft, level with Andover at .850, and Milton has won seven straight. Seeds come out Nov. 15.

Mass Pitch Staff · 2026-10-22

Groton School dropped out of the Class B top eight this week. It lost 1-0 at Noble & Greenough School on Wednesday after starting the week seventh by win percentage on our Class B page. Tabor Academy, which beat Buckingham Browne & Nichols 3-1 on Wednesday, took its place. Dana Hall School lost 2-0 at The Rivers School on Monday and beat Middlesex 2-0 on Wednesday, and it holds eighth. Brooks School, just outside the top eight when the week started, lost 3-1 at home to St. George's on Wednesday and is 12th.

In Class A, Austin Preparatory School beat Cushing Academy 5-1 last Friday and won 4-1 at Phillips Academy Exeter (N.H.) on Monday. At 7-0-3, Austin Prep is second on our Class A page, behind The Taft School (Conn.). Its .850 win percentage is level with Andover's.

What the table is, and what it isn't

Each class page now carries a "Tournament picture" table. It sorts the class by win percentage in games on The Mass Pitch, with a tie counting as half a win, and lists each school's record against the rest of its class. It is not an official ranking, a prediction or a seed list.

NEPSAC picks the fields. A committee of coaches selects and seeds an eight-team bracket in each class, weighing overall record, record against teams in the same class, head-to-head results and strength of schedule. The dates were announced Oct. 12: seeds on Sunday, Nov. 15, quarterfinals Wednesday, Nov. 18, semifinals Saturday, Nov. 21, and all four finals Sunday, Nov. 22, at Rivers in Weston. Our NEPSAC tournament page has the schedule and last year's brackets.

Class B: a knot from sixth to 12th

The top of Class B has not moved. Lawrence Academy is 9-1-0 (.900) and 7-0-0 against Class B, and it has outscored opponents 39-5. Its only loss was 1-0 at Milton on Oct. 12. Tyler Martens, who plays club for FC Stars Blue ECNL G08/07, has 12 of those 39 goals. Lawrence hosts Thayer on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. (game page).

Dexter Southfield is second at 6-1-1 (.813) and 5-0-0 against its own class after beating The Winsor School 7-0 on Wednesday. Its draw and its loss both came against Class A teams: 0-0 at Austin Prep on Oct. 14 and 1-0 at Worcester Academy last Saturday. Dexter Southfield was the No. 1 seed in Class B last fall and lost its semifinal 1-0 to The Williston Northampton School. The Pingree School is third at 7-2-0. Its losses were to Dexter Southfield (3-0) and Andover (4-2). St. George's School (R.I.), the defending Class B champion, is fourth at 7-2-1 and 7-1-0 against Class B. Its one loss in the class was 2-0 at Lawrence on Oct. 10, and it won 3-1 at Brooks on Wednesday. Hopkins (Conn.) is fifth at 3-1-2.

From sixth to 12th, seven teams are separated by 83 thousandths of a point. Here are the six Massachusetts schools in that group:

Greenwich Country Day (Conn.) is ninth at 2-2-0. Source: Class B page, Oct. 22.

Head-to-head doesn't sort them out. Among Brooks, Middlesex and Groton, the results run in a circle. Brooks beat Middlesex 2-0 on Oct. 10. Middlesex beat Groton 1-0 last Friday. Groton won 1-0 at Brooks on Oct. 3.

Dana Hall is eighth despite its record inside the class. It beat Middlesex 2-0 at home on Wednesday, but it is 2-5-0 against Class B, with losses to Brooks (3-0), Groton (5-1), Pingree (2-1), Dexter Southfield (6-1) and Rivers. Tabor's case runs the other way. It is 1-1-2 against Class B, but it won 3-2 at Class A Thayer on Oct. 10 and beat Class A BB&N on Wednesday. Brooks was a No. 7 seed last fall, won 6-0 at No. 2 Ethel Walker School (Conn.) in the quarterfinals and lost its semifinal at St. George's on penalty kicks.

All six play again by Saturday. Dana Hall plays at St. Mark's School on Friday at 4:15 p.m. (game page), and Groton hosts BB&N the same day (game page). On Saturday, Brooks visits Dexter Southfield at 2:30 p.m. (game page), Tabor plays at St. George's at 2 p.m. (game page), Middlesex hosts Nobles (game page) and Rivers plays at Milton (game page).

Class A: Austin Prep second, Milton climbing

Taft (Conn.) is still first at 7-0-2 (.889) and has allowed three goals. Austin Prep is next at .850 and is 5-0-2 against Class A. It has beaten Phillips Academy Andover 1-0, Noble & Greenough School 2-0 on the road, Thayer Academy 5-0, Northfield Mount Hermon School 3-2 and Exeter 4-1, and drawn with Milton Academy (0-0) and Miss Porter's School (Conn.) (1-1). Ellie Poulos, who plays club for FC Stars White ECNL G09, scored twice at Exeter and has seven goals, the most of any Class A player on our Class A page. Austin Prep hosts BB&N on Wednesday, Oct. 28 (game page).

Andover is third at 8-1-1 (.850). Its only loss was the 1-0 game at Austin Prep on Oct. 7, and it has allowed four goals in 10 games. It played St. Paul's School (N.H.) to a 0-0 draw last Saturday, beat The Governors Academy 5-0 on Wednesday and plays at Northfield Mount Hermon this Saturday (game page).

Milton moved from sixth to fourth this week. Milton beat St. Mark's 5-0 on Wednesday, its seventh straight win, and it has outscored opponents 24-3 in that run, including the 1-0 win over Lawrence. Milton is 9-2-1 (.792), with more wins than anyone in Class A, but its two losses came early: 1-0 at Andover on Sept. 23 and 4-3 at Thayer on Sept. 30. Westminster School (Conn.) slid from fourth to sixth after a 1-1 draw with Greenwich Academy (Conn.) on Tuesday. Porter's, last year's Class A champion, is fifth.

Nobles is seventh at 5-1-3 (.722). Its only loss was to Austin Prep, and four of its five wins were 1-0, including one at Westminster on Sept. 27. Its 1-1-3 record against Class A has the fewest in-class wins of anyone in the top eight. Loomis-Chaffee (Conn.) holds eighth at 5-2-1 (.688).

Just outside in Class A

Thayer is ninth at 6-3-0 (.667), 21 thousandths behind Loomis. Thayer is 3-1-0 against Class A and handed Milton one of its two losses, but it lost to Tabor (3-2) on Oct. 10 and at Groton (2-1) on Oct. 14. On Saturday it plays at Lawrence, the Class B leader.

Worcester Academy is 12th at 5-3-0 (.625). All three of its losses were by one goal: 2-1 at Andover, 2-1 at Porter's and 1-0 to Loomis. It handed Dexter Southfield its first loss last Saturday, and it plays at Taft this Saturday (game page). Worcester was a No. 6 seed last year and reached the semifinals. Its game with Austin Prep is now set for Monday, Nov. 2 (game page).

Buckingham Browne & Nichols, last year's No. 8 seed that beat top-seeded Loomis in overtime, is 15th at 4-4-1 after the loss at Tabor. Deerfield Academy (4-5-1) and Northfield Mount Hermon (0-8-1) are further back.

Classes C and D

The picture is thin in both. On the Class C page, Greens Farms Academy (Conn.), last year's Class C champion, is 4-0-0 and King (Conn.) is 4-0-1, and no Massachusetts school is in the top eight yet. The Class D page has no table yet.

Earlier

Our Oct. 13 standings had Lawrence leading the ISL. Our Oct. 15 story on the unbeatens covered the 0-0 draw between Dexter Southfield and Austin Prep. Conference tables are on the NEPSAC standings hub. We will update the tournament picture each week until seeds come out on Nov. 15.

Source: Mass Pitch NEPSAC Class A, B, C and D pages and game results as of Oct. 22, 2026 (all games on The Mass Pitch, not conference-only). Tournament dates and selection criteria: 2026 NEPSGSA Coaches' Handbook (posted Oct. 12, 2026) and the NEPSAC tournament page. 2025 seeds and results: official 2025 NEPSAC brackets.

Card photo: Abbot campus, Phillips Academy, Andover, in October, by Tomwsulcer / Wikimedia Commons (CC0).

The Mass Pitch is AI-assisted editorial with humans in the loop. Corrections: editorial@themasspitch.com.