The brackets for the California Interscholastic Federation State Girls Volleyball Championships were released on Sunday, providing good news for some area teams.
Despite falling to Chico in the Northern Section Division II final, Pleasant Valley received an at-large bid with the 12th seed in Division II of the Northern California portion of the state playoffs.
The Vikings (27-5) will play at No. 5 Foothill (19-13) of Pleasanton in the first round at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
PV could have been left out because it competed for a section title in a two-team field. The CIF only guarantees section runner-ups state berths if the section playoff bracket consists of a minimum number of teams.
But a strength of schedule that included a 19-5 record against section playoff teams helped the Vikings’ case, and they were rewarded with the first Division II at-large bid from the Northern Section, PV head coach J.J. Mitchell said.
Chico, which won the section title over PV in four sets on Friday, was guaranteed a state berth. The Panthers (17-11) received the 11th seed and go to No. 6 Nevada Union (33-13) of Grass Valley for its first-round contest.
Chico hosted Nevada Union on Sept. 7, and the Miners won 25-23, 25-19, 25-17.
General admission for the state playoffs through the NorCal finals is $9 or $5 for seniors, students with student ID and children.
All first-round matchups are at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The second round is set for 7 p.m. Saturday at the higher seed.
That would include Durham as the Trojans were seeded second among NorCal teams in the Division V bracket. Not only would Durham host a second-round match on Saturday, but the Trojans would be guaranteed to host a NorCal semifinal on Tuesday, Nov. 21, provided they win their first two contests.
But first up is No. 15 Bradshaw Christian (14-14) of Sacramento at 7 p.m. Wednesday.
With a win, Durham would host the winner of No. 10 East Nicolaus (19-11) and No. 7 Clear Lake (27-6) at 7 p.m. on Saturday.
In an unusual twist, Durham has a first-round contest while No. 3 Mt. Madonna (15-11) of Watsonville has a bye.
An email from Rebecca Brutlag, the CIF’s media relations officer, explained that “when the teams are seeded” those arranging the brackets “also look at travel and what’s best for all the teams involved thus the brackets are seeded according.”
So because a trip to Durham is about 100 miles each way from Bradshaw Christian as opposed to about 160 miles each way to Mt. Madonna in Watsonville, the choice was to have the Trojans have a first-round game instead of the lower-seeded team.
Willows (22-10) received the 10th seed in Division IV and goes to No. 7 Colfax (19-6) for a first-round contest.
West Valley, which beat Willows for the section title in D-IV, was seeded third and received a first-round bye.
Paradise Adventist Academy (27-7) was seeded sixth in the Division VI bracket, which consists solely of NorCal teams. The Cougars are at No. 3 Big Valley Christian (29-6) of Modesto.
Complete brackets for all divisions can be found on the CIFState.org website.
