Getting to that time of year where volleyball teams start to think about post-season placement and the drive to a state tournament bid. And now we start our weekly thoughts on which teams will get to Denver and compete for the state championship in Classes 1A and 2A. We’re using RPI numbers before games were played on Wednesday for our projections to place teams in the bracket and then predict which teams will feel will advance.
Predictions of course will change on a weekly basis based on results and where teams, especially in 2A and 3A, would be projected in the regional bracket. As always, we love to hear comments from our readers and you can send us an email to [email protected].
The photo for the story was provided by John Contreras.
CLASS 1A
District formats will again be used this year and the top three teams from each event advance and will be placed in predetermined regional pairings. We first list the three qualifiers from each district (predicted).
- District 1: Dove Creek, North Park, Norwood
- District 2: Kit Carson, Cheyenne Wells, Eads
- District 3: Springfield, South Baca, Walsh
- District 4: Merino, Fleming, Briggsdale
- District 5: Otis, Flagler/Hi Plains, Haxtun
- District 6: La Veta, Sangre De Cristo, Cotopaxi
- District 7: Genoa Hugo, Elbert, Kiowa
- District 8: Belleview Christian, Mile High Academy, Flatirons Academy
Those teams are then placed in eight regional brackets and our projected winners from those brackets are:
- Region A: La Veta
- Region B: Kit Carson
- Region C: Otis
- Region D: Fleming
- Region E: Sangre De Cristo
- Region F: Springfield
- Region G: Genoa Hugo
- Region H: Merino
And again, using RPI numbers from Wednesday October 9th, the four wildcards would then be selected based on those numbers. Remember that teams must qualify for regionals to be considered for a wildcard
- Briggsdale
- Mile High Academy
- Cotopaxi
- Dove Creek
CLASS 2A
District tournaments are no longer conducted in Class 2A as starting last year, the top 36 teams from RPI were placed in regional brackets. Some teams near the bottom of the seeding could be moved for geographic purposes but for our projection needs, we true seed spots one through 36.
Using the numbers from Wednesday October 9th, the regional brackets shape up in the order below. Our picks for regional winners are listed in bold.
- REGION 1: Denver Christian, Akron, Swallows Charter
- REGION 2: Limon, Vail Christian, Paonia
- REGION 3: Wiggins, Heritage Christian, Gilpin County
- REGION 4: Union Colony Prep, Yuma, Ignacio
- REGION 5: Meeker, Rocky Ford, Soroco
- REGION 6: Fowler, Telluride, Plateau Valley
- REGION 7: West Grand, Hoehne, Peyton
- REGION 8: Simla, Holyoke, Byers
- REGION 9: Rye, Dawson, Del Norte
- REGION 10: Swink, Dolores, John Mall
- REGION 11: Sedgwick County, Sanford, Vail Christian
- REGION 12: Highland, Fountain Valley, Clear Creek
Yuma is probably the most surprising pick as the defending state champions have been below five hundred for most of the year. But the Indians have plenty of post-season experience over the past six years and we believe they will be a tough out in the post-season. Plus Wiggins is from the same league as Yuma and swept Union Colony Prep in three sets in Greeley.
We think Regions 9 and 10 are the most difficult to project. Del Norte or Sanford could easily land the Southern Peaks title but will be seeded very low in the bracket. Region 9, in it’s current format, also includes Rye and Dawson who are challenging for the titles in the Santa Fe and Mile High respectively.
Again, these are for projection purposes only and the opinion of Colorado Preps. RPI numbers will change drastically each week especially as some of the top teams start to square off in conference play. We’ll update our predictions each week through the rest of the season.
