|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
It always seems to be an embarrassment of riches for the East Bay Athletic League when the North Coast Section girls’ volleyball playoffs roll around each year.
In the D-I playoffs, five EBAL teams qualified, and all were seeded in the top seven. All five advanced to the second round of play on Saturday, October 28.
Following play on the 28th, three of the four semifinalists were from the EBAL, with Marin Catholic joining top seeded Foothill (34-1), No. 2 seeded San Ramon Valley (25-7), and No. 4 seed Amador Valley (24-9).
In the D-II playoffs, Carondelet was the No. 5 seed and advanced to the second round. They were beaten by Campolindo in the second round, but the Cougars finished 24-11.
Monte Vista fell to Amador in the second round, but the Mustangs finished 20-11, giving the league five teams with 20-plus wins on the season.
California lost to San Ramon Valley in the second round, with the Grizzlies finishing out with a 17-13 record.
The only surprise of the D-I playoffs is that all four semifinalists are not from the EBAL. The way the brackets were set up, it was not possible for it to happen. If it had been possible….
Now the EBAL is guaranteed to have a finalist and has a good possibility to have both finalists.
The 680-corridor has been the home to powerful volleyball for some time with the Pleasanton and Danville schools sending out top-notch teams every year.
Just look at the overall records for teams in the league. As listed above there were five EBAL teams that have at least 20 wins this season, a testament to how strong the league is each season.
Look at the losses for the teams: Foothill has one loss, and it came to Amador Valley; Amador Valley has nine losses – with four coming to EBAL teams; San Ramon Valley has seven losses with three coming to EBAL teams. Finally, nine of the 12 losses for Monte Vista came to EBAL teams.
These schools do not duck anyone, seeking out the best tournaments in Northern California each season.
As a result, just to get through EBAL play makes a team battled tested and ready for the postseason.
I almost feel sorry when teams from other leagues draw teams from the EBAL in NCS.
Take Vintage High from Napa, the team Foothill played in the second round of NCS. The Crushers pulled out a thrilling five-set win over Castro Valley.
Their reward was a trip to Pleasanton on Saturday afternoon to face the Falcons. I was sitting at the scorer’s table during warmups when the First Referee walked over to table and commented on the Foothill warmups, saying, “it looks they have 12 great players out there.”
The young Crushers found out how good the Falcons are again, as they ran off the first 16 points in the first set.
With Foothill 34-1 and the top seed it would be easy to put the Falcons into the NCS finals and probably crown them champions but that’s far from a given.
While it’s a blessing for EBAL teams to beat up on each other during the season, it stinks when you get to the postseason and know you are going to be playing the teams you just locked horns with for the last two months.
Foothill has won 31 straight matches but in Amador they face the team that hung the lone loss on them. It’s going to be the fourth time the two have met. There are no secrets between the two teams and it’s a coin toss as to who wins.
The Falcons also won the EBAL playoffs but needed to come from 2-0 deficits in the semifinals against Monte Vista and in the finals against San Ramon Valley.
At this point, you could make a case for all three of the EBAL teams, and realistically, for Marin Catholic as well, but the Wildcats don’t have the battle testing the other three teams.
If figures to be a heck of a week of volleyball.
Water Polo
NCS play starts this week with the EBAL well represented as usual.
In the boys’ side of the tournament, San Ramon Valley and De La Salle are in the Open division. In the D-I tournament California, Amador Valley, Foothill, and Monte Vista are all playing.
In the girls’ D-I tournament, California, Monte Vista, Amador Valley, and San Ramon Valley are in the field.
Make sure to check out the Playbook’s “What to Watch,” for a schedule of when and where the matches take place!
Football
In what is turning into a pair of interesting brackets, the Open/D-I divisions feature Amador Valley, California, Clayton Valley, De La Salle, Monte Vista, and San Ramon Valley.
Teams that are eligible for the D-II playoffs are Dublin, Foothill, Granada, and Livermore.
The Open/D-I playoffs are interesting. In all, eight teams will make up the field, with the two top seeds playing the No. 7 and 8 seeds.
The winners will then meet for the Open title. The loser of the Open final drops into the D-I final, taking on the team that advances through the two-game, D-I playoffs.
Heading into the final week of the regular season it looks the seeds in order would be De La Salle, San Ramon Valley, Pittsburg, Amador Valley, Clayton Valley, California, Campolindo, and either Liberty, Antioch, or James Logan taking the eighth spot.
The last spot could be rendered moot as Logan will be a league champion, thus getting an automatic berth. That leaves Liberty and Antioch on the outside looking in.
If that indeed is what happens, then here would be your games:
De La Salle (1) vs. James Logan (8)
San Ramon Valley (2) vs. Campolindo (7)
Those would in essence be the Open semifinals. You would likely see DLS and SRV both win and then meet the next week. The loser there would drop into the D-I final.
The D-I tournament would look like this:
Pittsburg (3) vs. California (7)
Amador Valley (4) vs. Clayton Valley (5)
The two winners would then meet, with the winner facing the loser of De La Salle-San Ramon Valley for the D-I title.
Of course, this could, and with the way things have been going, likely will change after the games this week.
Cross Country
The EBAL meet is set for November 4 at Newhall Park in Concord.
The NCS meet is November 18 at Hayward High, with the CIF State Championships set for its traditional Thanksgiving weekend, November 25 in Fresno.
