The Caesar Rodney High boys’ tennis team leads by a point while the Riders’ girls trail by one going into today’s final round of the DIAA state tournament.

The finals are slated to begin at 1:30 p.m. at the University of Delaware’s Field House courts in Newark. The schedule starts with the first and second doubles and third singles matches with the first and second singles title matches to follow.

The one exception is the boys’ third-singles match, which will start at 5 p.m.

The CR boys are trying to win their second straight state title and third since 2011. The Riders’ girls are trying to win their first team championship since 2011.

Caesar Rodney’s boys have 18 points to 17 for second-place Tower Hill. All four of the Riders’ entries won their semifinal matches on Wednesday: Trey Parker (second singles), Donnan Gravelle (third singles), Alex Feuerstein-David Haynes (first doubles) and Neil Patel-Cyrus Shanehsaz (second doubles).

CR faces Tower Hill in two of the five finals. Two points are awarded for a win in a title match.

At first singles, Milford’s Colt Williamson reached the finals with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over unseeded Rishi Shah of St. Andrews. The second-seeded Williamson will face top-seeded Robby Ward of Tower Hill in today’s finals.

In the girls’ tournament, the Riders’ have 17 points to first-place Tower Hill’s 18. Advancing to the finals for CR on Wednesday were Hannah Morris (second singles) and Natasha Sijan (third singles).

The Riders face Tower Hill in only one of today’s championship matches.

Dover’s unseeded Emma Patterson and Hayley Scheir also continued their Cinderella run by reaching the state finals with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Archmere on Wednesday. The Senators’ pair have now knocked off the first, fourth and eighth seeds in the bracket while going 4-0 and not losing a set.

Lacrosse

BOYS, Cape Henlopen 17, Smyrna 3: James Ashby (1 assist) and Erik-Stephane Stancofski netted four goals apiece as the second-seeded Vikings (12-5) rolled to the opening-round win in the DIAA state tournament.

Defending state champion Cape next hosts No. 7 Archmere (14-2) on Saturday at 4 p.m. Hank Coveleski (1 assist) and Jeb Monigle added two goals each for the Vikings while goalie Chris Argo made five saves.

Jake Kaiser, Luke Russillo (1 assist) and Joseph Russillo scored for the No. 15 Eagles (11-5) while Shane Helm made seven saves.

Archmere 21, Sussex Tech 7: The seventh-seeded Auks downed the No. 10 Ravens in an opening-round game on Wednesday night.

Archmere (14-2) advances to Saturday’s quarterfinals while Sussex Tech finishes the season at 10-6.

Sussex Tech’s Jason Whaley had four goals and an assist with Caleb Dennis (1 assist), Ian Carlisle (1 assist) and Daniel Wilson also scoring goals.

Polytech girls to host St. Mark’s: Second-seeded Polytech (14-1) will host No. 3 St. Mark’s (12-4) in the semifinals of the DIAA girls’ lacrosse state tournament today at 7 p.m.

The Spartans edged sixth-seeded Caravel, 19-18, in overtime on Wednesday night. That contest was postponed on Tuesday night because of wet field conditions.

Top-seeded Cape Henlopen (12-4) hosts No. 4 Tower Hill (12-3) today at 7 p.m. in the other semifinal.

Softball

Polytech 3, Laurel 1: Whitney DeMora’s three-run homerun in the top of the seventh inning gave the Panthers a dramatic victory in their regular-season finale.

Winning pitcher Shaina Reed threw a two-hitter with nine strikeouts for Polytech (12-1 in conference, 17-1 overall), which was 0-4 against the two-time defending state champion Bulldogs over the last two seasons.

Laurel pitcher Regan Green was working on a no-hitter before Kailey Perry led off the seventh with a single. Reed then reached base on an error before DeMora homered.

Green struck out 13 while catcher Sara Jo Whaley homered in the sixth for Laurel (11-2, 16-2). The contest was postponed twice this week because of wet field conditions.

The DIAA state tournament pairings will be determined today as the tourney gets underway on Saturday.

Woodbridge 23, Seaford 1: The Raiders picked up a Henlopen Conference victory.

Baseball

Polytech 10, Laurel 0: Brandon Case pitched a five-inning one-hitter as the Panthers blanked the Bulldogs in their Henlopen Conference finale.

Carter Chasanov had three of Polytech’s seven hits.

The Panthers (9-8) finish their schedule with a 4 p.m. game at Middletown today. The contest is the continuation of a game started on Saturday that needs to be completed because of a protest.

The pairings for the DIAA state tournament, which starts on Saturday, will be determined this evening.

Nandua, Va. 7, Woodbridge 2: The Raiders dropped a nonconference decision on Wednesday.

College baseball

Elon 7, Delaware 6: The Blue Hens controlled Wednesday’s game for eight innings, but Elon launched an improbable ninth-inning rally to stun Delaware in the first round of the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament.

The fourth-seeded Phoenix scored five runs in the bottom of the ninth to erase a 6-2 deficit. The fifth-seeded Hens now have to turn around a play an elimination game at 10 a.m. today.

“That was about as tough of a loss as I have experienced in my career,” said Delaware coach Jim Sherman.

The contest was delayed for more than five hours because of rain and lightning.