Prep Volleyball Roundup: Scores and Reports from The Blast Zone

League Tiebreaker — R.A. Long, Mark Morris and Washougal all end up tied for 3rd place

Volleyballs fill the space many coaches have historically used for storing their children during practice. — Blast Zone Media

Jordan Nailon / blastzonenews@gmail.com

The final day of the regular season could have provided clarity for high school volleyball fans but instead the stars aligned in order to create an overlapping tapestry of confusion in the middle of the 2A Greater St. Helens League standings. Last week when R.A. Long defeated Mark Morris everyone, including the Monarchs, was under the impression that the Lumberjills had clinched a third place finish via sets won/lost throughout the entirety of the league schedule.

That all would have been fine and dandy except a late audible from the rules makers eliminated in-season sets as a tiebreaker criteria, leaving just overall record and head-to-head victories to break any ties.

Well, after R.A. Long and Mark Morris were swept by Ridgefield and Columbia River, respectively, and Washougal managed a five-set victory over Woodland on Tuesday, what we’re left with is a three-way pileup for third place in a league with five playoff spots up for grabs.

The solution will leave some people disappointed, especially those people (i.e. fans) who enjoy watching the games live and rooting for their favorite teams. 

And what is the solution? A three-way tiebreaker at Woodland High School starting at 2 p.m. on Thursday. Each team will play the other two in rotating fashion in a best-of-three series. If a team goes 2-0, they would earn the No. 3 spot. If a team goes 0–2, they would wind up as the No. 5 seed. But if each team winds up going 1-1, guess what they’ll do? Count up the points scored during the playoff series and tabulate the winner that way.

Which seems like an even more flimsy way to determine the winner than sets won over the course of an entire season, but I’ll let my opinions on that stay in the grave. The real shame is that there will likely be three empty student body sections since the competition will be held on a neutral site during school hours. Hopefully the players will still be rewarded with a playoff atmosphere to match the scenario, even if the good goblins and ghouls are still in school.