State volleyball tourney features new double-elimination format

PALMER — There has been a big change in Alaska high school volleyball this year.

The old, simple, postseason tournament brackets — which include the standard, quarterfinal, semifinal and final rounds — have been scratched to make room for an all-new double-elimination format. Teams in the Northern Lights and Cook Inlet conferences took their first stab at the new model during their respective championship events last weekend. This week, eight teams from across the Last Frontier will compete in Alaska’s first double-elimination state volleyball tournament, which begins Thursday at the Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center in Wasilla.

“I started out pretty opposed to the bracket for state,” Palmer head coach Steve Reynolds said Monday afternoon. “I always just wanted to see better seeding.”

But like many others around the Alaska volleyball court, Reynolds is warming up to the idea. The longtime Palmer head coach prepared the tournament switch to the change in scoring method, which hit Alaska high school volleyball within the last decade. In the past, points were only awarded to the serving team, not on every play.

“At first you don’t know what to expect. You’re used to the old way. People in general don’t like change. Now I never think about it,” Reynolds said.

Palmer, the NLC runner-up and opens tourney play against CIC champion Dimond Thursday at 3:15 p.m., experienced the most favorable part of the double-elimination format during the NLC tourney in Kodiak last weekend. Palmer entered the conference event as the NLC’s top seed and was awarded a first-round bye. The Moose met host Kodiak late during the first day of the championships, and the Bears upset Palmer 3-1. But with the new format, Palmer was able to battle through the loser’s bracket. Three wins later, the Moose found themselves in the championship final.

The 4A bracket will feature four first-round matches Thursday. Mid-Alaska Conference champion West Valley plays East Anchorage at 10 a.m. NLC champion Soldotna meets CIC runner-up South Anchorage at 11:45 p.m. Southeast Conference champion Juneau-Douglas plays Kodiak at 1:30 p.m. Palmer meets Dimond in the final first-round match of the day at 3:15 p.m.

The winner of each match moves ahead to the second round Thursday evening. The losers drop down to play in the loser’s bracket Friday morning.

The winners of each match Thursday evening move into the first semifinal match, slated for Friday at 7 p.m. The loser of that match will face the winner of the loser’s bracket games in the second semifinal Saturday at noon, with the teams playing for a spot in the state title game.

With the double-elimination format, there’s an “if necessary” game built into the bracket. That game will be played if a losing team suffers its first loss in the championship match.

Dimond needed the “if necessary” game to win the CIC crown. South upset Dimond earlier in the tourney, but the Lynx used back-to-back wins over the Wolverines to win the title.

Reynolds said Dimond is simply a very good team.

Contact Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com and find him by searching Valley Sports Huddle on Facebook.