Girls' volleyball: Southern Part coaches take problem with new playoff structure

The Southern Segment girls’ volleyball playoff-format improve was satisfied with questioning tones.

“A small bit shocking,” Mira Costa High girls’ volleyball mentor Cam Inexperienced said.

“A truly odd strategy,” Marymount’s Cari Klein stated.

For several years, the established leading-division playoff format in the area has been a one-elimination bracket. Eliminate a match, and that was it. Promising teams came and went.

But this 12 months, the top rated eight teams at the conclude of the common season will be divided into two groups for pool perform. It’s a shift that is been talked over among the Southern Section’s volleyball advisory committee for decades, in accordance to Southern Segment assistant commissioner Mike Middlebrook.

“I imagine it’s going to be perfectly-acquired and wonderful,” Middlebrook reported.

Not but, while.

“I don’t understand it in girls’ volleyball,” Klein said.

The structure will adhere to the pool-enjoy framework currently in place for the Open up Division basketball playoffs. The baseline explanation for the alter, Middlebrook mentioned, was to give groups who missing in the to start with round of the Southern Portion bracket extra action prior to relocating to regional CIF play, fairly than waiting around months ahead of another match.

“It was unfair to go into that idle mode for this sort of a very long interval of time,” Middlebrook explained.

The initially, fourth, fifth and eighth seeds will be positioned in one particular pool, and the 2nd, 3rd, sixth and seventh in the other. The team with the greatest overall document following three pool matches will get and progress to the finals.

Would seem simple ample. But it is conceivable that a few groups in the very same pool could all finish with 2-1 documents. What occurs in a tiebreak state of affairs?

Middlebrook stated that alternative hasn’t been decided, but they’d likely comply with the model set forth by basketball: Groups generate factors dependent on the number of the seed they conquer, and the lowest complete wins the pool. That would signify that the reduced seed would virtually often choose the pool in a a few-way tiebreak.

“That to me does not make any feeling,” Inexperienced said. “That section I’m nervous about.”

The optimum-seeded team in any pool matchup, even so, will automatically enjoy the game at house, Middlebrook explained. Therefore, larger seeds are anticipated to earn.

“I come to feel like if I’m just one of the greater seeds, I go, ‘Great, I’m certain to be at residence for 1 of these big matches,’” Redondo coach Tommy Chaffins explained. “If I’m in the direction of the bottom, I’ll say, ‘Great! If I’m on the street and I get some wins, we’re likely to win each tie.’”

With the new structure in brain, here are The Times’ predicted best-division playoff matchups.

Pool 1

1. Mira Costa

4. Palos Verdes

5. Redondo Union

8. Huntington Beach front

Pool 2

2. Sierra Canyon

3. Marymount

6. Lakewood

7. Mater Dei

City Part jumble

6 teams are virtual locks for Open Division participate in in the Metropolis Section playoffs: El Camino True, Granada Hills, Taft, Palisades, Venice and Chatsworth. The closing two spots are up for grabs. An overview of five groups that could sneak into Open Division participate in:

Birmingham: Now forward of Chatsworth in West Valley League perform.

Sun Valley Poly: Has beaten solid Metropolis Portion competitiveness and good Southern Part groups enjoying a difficult routine.

Verdugo Hills: Beat Sunlight Valley Poly final Tuesday soon after shedding to them earlier in the time. Group is on the verge of location the program’s one-year record for wins, and senior Ana Vazquez is on the cusp of breaking their all-time full kills history set by Crystal Perryman at 789.

San Pedro: Hung tough with Venice in two matches this time.

Eagle Rock: Struggled to commence the time, but has out of the blue emerged with seven wins in a row.