A year filled with milestones in girls’ volleyball advances into the postseason as teams begin the pursuit of district championships and trips to the PIAA tournament.
Matches get started in the quarterfinal round in Class 4A and Class 2A on Thursday, with a full slate of playoff games scheduled for Friday.
In the District 2-4 Class 4A subregional, all teams qualify for the tournament. Top-seeded Williamsport (14-4), the defending subregional champion, received a bye into the semifinals. The Millionaires will play the winner of Thursday’s quarterfinal match that has No. 5 Wilkes-Barre Area (6-10) at No. 4 Wyoming Valley West (6-8) at 6 p.m.
Both Scranton School District teams are involved in the other quarterfinal matches. No. 7 West Scranton (3-15) is at No. 2 Delaware Valley (12-4) at 5 p.m. No. 6 Scranton (7-9) is at No. 3 Hazleton Area (8-10) at 5 p.m. The winners will advance to the semifinal doubleheader at Williamsport on Monday.
There are three quarterfinal matches in Class 2A on Thursday.
Defending champion Holy Redeemer (17-3), the No. 2 seed, opens with a home match against No. 7 Lakeland (6-10) at 6 p.m. No. 5 Montrose (11-5) is at No. 4 Lake-Lehman (11-7) at 6 p.m.
An intriguing quarterfinal match has No. 6 Western Wayne (10-9) at No. 3 Dunmore (11-4) at 5 p.m. Western Wayne’s Lauren Beamer recorded the 1,000th kill of her career last Tuesday. Dunmore won the regular-season meeting between the two teams, 3-2.
On Friday, the Class 3A quarterfinals begin with four matches.
No. 1 Berwick (15-1), the defending champion, hosts No. 8 Valley View (8-10) at 6 p.m. Undefeated and second-seeded Abington Heights (20-0), the Lackawanna League champion, will host No. 7 Nanticoke Area (8-10) at 5 p.m. No. 6 North Pocono (14-5) is at No. 3 Crestwood (16-2) at 6 p.m., and No. 5 Dallas (16-4) is at No. 4 Tunkhannock (12-4) at 4:30 p.m.
The Class 3A semifinals are on Tuesday.
The final Class 2A quarterfinal is Friday. Top-seeded Blue Ridge (17-1) will host No. 8 Elk Lake (6-12) at 6 p.m. The quarterfinal winners from Thursday and Friday advance to the semifinals on Tuesday.
The semifinal round matches in each classification will be doubleheaders at the site of the highest remaining seed of the four teams.
The Class 1A semifinals are Monday at Mountain View.
No. 3 Susquehanna (6-15) plays No. 2 MMI Prep (7-14) at 5 p.m. No. 4 Lackawanna Trail (1-17) will face top-seeded Mountain View (10-12), the defending champion, 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first match.
Lackawanna Trail’s only win this season came in a five-set match against Mountain View.