Volleyball State-Qualifying Tourneys
A-1 Region I
When: Tonight
Where: Lake City High School
Admission: $4 adults, $2 students with activity cards. No booster passes will be honored.
At a glance: It would be a major upset if defending state champion and undefeated Sandpoint doesn’t capture the regional championship. The battle here realistically is for second and the accompanying playoff match for a state berth. The tournament-tested runner-up figures to be favored in a playoff match against the District III (Boise area) fourth-place finisher.
Top-seeded Sandpoint (21-0) will meet No. 3 Coeur d’Alene (18-19) in the title match tonight at 7 with the winner earning the region’s automatic berth to state. In first-round matches Tuesday, Sandpoint downed No. 4 Lake City 15-13, 15-10 while visiting CdA knocked off No. 2 Lewiston 8-15, 15-6, 15-3.
In the first match tonight at 5:30, Lake City (15-11) meets Lewiston (14-10) in a loser-out match. The winner will take on the loser of the championship match at 8:30 in the final regional match. That winner’s season will extend at least two more days when it meets a still-to-be determined District III opponent at Grangeville on Saturday for a state berth.
State will be held Oct. 27-28 at Lake City High School.
A-2 District I-II
When: Tonight and Saturday
Where: Tonight at sites of the two lowest seeds, Saturday at Lakeland High School
Admission: Tonight, $3 adults and $2 students with activity cards; Saturday, $4 adults and $3 students with activity cards. No booster passes will be honored.
At a glance: The Intermountain League will send the usual two teams to state. But it was a very unusual league season.
Coin flips were required to determine seeding and host teams for tonight’s loser-out matches after Lakeland, Bonners Ferry, Moscow and Kellogg finished in a four-way tie for third.
Moscow (7-11) is seeded third and will entertain No. 6 Lakeland (9-11), while No. 4 Kellogg (7-12) will play host to No. 5 Bonners Ferry (9-13). League champion St. Maries (20-4) and runner-up Priest River (15-8) received first-round byes.
The tournament concludes Saturday at Lakeland. The Moscow-Lakeland winner will meet Priest River in the first game Saturday at 1 p.m. The Kellogg-Bonners Ferry survivor will take on No. 1 St. Maries at 2:30. The winners will meet in the district title match at 5:30. The losers will battle in a loser-out match earlier at 4. The loser of the championship match will take on the loser-out survivor at 7 to determine the district’s runner-up berth to state.
St. Maries will be seeking a 15th straight district title. But if league play is any indication, the Lumberjacks could be challenged.
“I’ve never seen a season in this league like this year where the last-place team could push the first-place team,” St. Maries coach Mitch Santos said. “There’s a lot of parity, but it’s quality parity. Any of the other five teams in the league would have taken second (in league) last year.”
Santos said any team could win district this weekend.
“But I will also give my team some credit. If my team plays at the level they’re capable of playing at it would be difficult to beat us,” he said.
Bonners Ferry snapped St. Maries’ 119-match Intermountain League winning streak this season, a string dating back to 1983.
State will be held Oct. 27-28 at Lake City High School.
A-4 District I
When: Saturday
Where: Kootenai High School
Admission: $3.50 adults, $2 students with activity cards, $2 children under 12, preschool and senior citizens free. No booster passes will be honored.
At a glance: Last year, Falls Christian Academy shocked North Star League champion Clark Fork to capture the district title and berth to state.
The shock factor has worn off after FCA and Clark Fork split league matches this season. They finished as co-champions and FCA won a coin flip Monday for the district’s top seed.
In the first match Saturday, FCA (13-11) will meet No. 4 Lakeside (3-18) at 10 a.m. In the second match, No. 2 Clark Fork (15-7) will take on No. 3 Mullan (9-11) at 11.
The losers will meet in a loser-out match at 12:15, followed by the winners in the opening matches playing at 1:15.
The championship match is at 3:15. If the lone undefeated team entering the match is beaten another match will be played at 4:15.
State will be held Oct. 27-28 at Twin Falls.
A-3 playoff
When: Saturday, 2 p.m.
Where: Moscow Junior High Fieldhouse
At a glance:
The route to state for independent Wallace takes the Miners down the precarious single-elimination road. But that isn’t anything new for the defending state champion Miners, who had to win a single-match playoff last year to qualify for state. The Miners (18-6) will meet the District II runner-up. Wallace won’t learn which team it will play until late tonight when the Central Idaho League’s district tournament concludes at Lewiston. Co-CIL champion Prairie meets No. 3 seed Lapwai in the district title match. The Prairie-Lapwai loser will meet the survivor of a loser-out match between co-CIL champ Kamiah and No. 4 Grangeville. That winner will advance to play Wallace.