Cinque Terre to Zurich

Hello! I am looking to travel from Cinque Terre to Zurich, where we will be catching a flight out of Zurich airport at 10:30am on June 30th. We are hoping to avoid getting a hotel in Zurich on the 29th if at all possible. We are researching two options:
Option 1: take a night train from CT that will arrive in Zurich early on June 30th (before 8am) thereby maximizing our time in CT and preventing us from having to rent an expensive room in Zurich.
Option 2: taking train to Lugano on the afternoon of June 29th and staying the night there (hopefully allowing us a few hours to explore the beautiful lake town that deserves far more time than we have) then taking either an early train or flight to Zurich airport on June 30th (which we see online there is a 5:45am train that gets into Zurich at 7:50am...though I'm not sure how reliable these online schedules are?).

Our questions are: Does anyone know if there is a night train from the CT region to Zurich? If we were to stay in Lugano for the night, does anyone know how reliable the trains are, and how well they stay on schedule?
Also, is it better to buy tickets for this travel in advance online, or can I do this a few days before or day of at the station? I am bit confused about train travel, as a planner I want to have everything bought and secured in advance, but We are also grateful to anyone who has recommendations or information that would be helpful (such as why it is not wise to try to arrive in Zurich two hours before our flight!) ;)

And one last random question--what is the best way to get on the water in CT? Is there a company that is recommended for ferry, taxi, even kayaking or standup paddleboarding?

Thanks all!