March 29, 2024

Regional volleyball pairings are set

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Fall postseason is around the corner — two weeks out — for Iowa high school teams.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union released what 2019 volleyball regional pairings late Tuesday afternoon. For the five area teams the postseason begins Oct. 22 or Oct 23.

Lynnville-Sully and Baxter will host Class 1A regional openers. Newton, Prairie City-Monroe and Colfax-Mingo begin on the road.

Newton High’s Cardinals are in the Class 4A Region 4 bracket. They face fellow Little Hawkeye Conference member Grinnell at 7 p.m. Oct. 23 at Grinnell. Newton beat Grinnell in LHC play then a couple days later the Tigers beat the Cardinals.

The winner will travel to Class 4A second-ranked Cedar Rapids Xavier for a semifinal on Oct. 29. Bondurant-Farrar and Des Moines Hoover play each other in a quarterfinal match and that winner plays at No. 12 Gilbert Oct. 29. The 4A Region 4 title match is Nov. 4 hosted by the highest-ranked team still playing.

Also opening regional play Oct. 23 is PCM as the Mustangs travel to 3A 13th-ranked Nevada in Class 3A Region 7 action at 7 p.m. The winner faces the winner of North Polk versus West Marshall Oct. 29 at Nevada.

On the other side of the 3A Region 7 bracket, third-ranked Tipton hosts South Tama and Williamsburg hosts Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont Oct. 23. The winners play at Tipton Oct. 29. The 3A Region 7 championship match is Nov. 4 at Benton.

Tipping off the volleyball postseason for area schools will be Lynnville-Sully and Baxter in Class 1A Region 4 play and Colfax-Mingo in Class 2A Region 6 Oct. 22. If the three area teams reach the semifinals of their regional, they will be playing on Halloween.

Staying with road warriors, Colfax-Mingo’s Tigerhawks travel to East Marshall and the winner plays at 2A No. 9 Hudson Oct. 28 in quarterfinal action. Region Catholic and Columbus face off in the other quarterfinal on that half of the bracket.

In the other 2A Region 6 play-in game Oct. 22, Pekin hosts Danville with the winner playing at 2A fifth-ranked Mediapolis Oct. 28. Wapello hosts Louisa-Muscatine in the other quarterfinal. The 2A Region 6 semifinals will be played Oct. 31 at Mediapolis and Hudson with the championship match Nov. 5 at Iowa City Regina High School.

Lynnville-Sully and Baxter host their opening round matches in 1A Region 4 Oct. 22. Twin Cedars goes to Lynnville-Sully and Baxter has Ankeny Christian coming in with both matches at 7 p.m.

The L-S Hawks are in the top of the bracket with Collins-Maxwell and GMG and Montezuma and BGM. Class 1A fourth-ranked North Tama is awaiting the winner of Collins-Maxwell and GMG while Lynnville-Sully, if the Hawks win, could face off against Montezuma in quarterfinal action.

BCLUW, ranked No. 13, in 1A hosts Colo-NESCO and the winner will face the winner of the Baxter-Ankeny Christian match at BCLUW Oct. 28. Also in the bottom half of the bracket are Southeast Warren, Melcher-Dallas, Martensdale-St. Marys and Grand View Christian. Southeast Warren hosts the quarterfinals.

The 1A Region semifinals will be Oct. 31 at North Tama and BCLUW. The championship match is Nov. 5 at Marshalltown.

Regional champions for all classes advance to the 2019 Iowa Girls High School State Tournament on Nov. 12-15 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids.

SIGN OF THE TIMES — I used the regional volleyball pairings information here in my column because the Newton Daily News has space limitations. You will find two Newton High sports stories on Wednesday's sports pages — the cross country one is abridged and a more detailed story is on the NDN website.

Also on the website, readers will find full stories on PCM volleyball, Lynnville-Sully volleyball and Baxter cross country from Tuesday’s competitions. This is the trend for us right now.

Contact Jocelyn Sheets
at jsheets@newtondailynews.com