WEM, Medford Volleyball Two, Three Seed at State

The Waterville-Elysian-Morristown Buccaneers should have been the top seed in next week's MSHSL Class A State Volleyball Tournament.  Saturday night they had an incredible come from behind win over top seed and top ranked Mayer Lutheran in a five set thriller.

Today coaches gave them the #2 seed in the State Tournament and awarded defending State Champion Minneota the top seed.  QRF rankings had Mayer Lutheran on top, WEM #2 and Minneota #3 and the Minnesota Volleyball Coaches Association final rankings were the same.  Mayer Lutheran followed by Waterville-Elysian-Morristown and Minneota.

Medford is the #3 seed which means if the two Gopher Conference teams win their opening matches they will play each other in the semifinals on Friday.  Did the other coaches not want two conference opponents in the finals?

Medford (24-8) was rated #7 in the final rankings and was #6 in QRF.   The Tigers are seeded #3 in the tournament.  They will open at 3:00 p.m. Thursday aginst the Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa Jaguars (23-8).

The #3 seed I speculate is due to Medford coming out of the toughest section in the state (with 4 ranked teams).

Minneota (30-3) lost to an unranked Class A BOLD team. Their other losses were to Northfield and New Prague.

Waterville-Elysian-Morristown (32-2) suffered both of their losses to ranked Class A teams (Kenyon-Wanamingo, Mayer Lutheran).  Of course they avenged their loss to the Crusaders in the Section 2A final.  The Buccaneers will open against the Henning Hornets (24-7) in their first match at 3:00 p.m. Thursday in St. Paul.

Minneota opens with the Greenway Raiders (26-4).  #4 seed Mounds Park Academy Panthers (25-4) go up against the Fosston Greyhounds (28-6).

The Semifinals are at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Friday.  If the Tigers and Buccaneers advance they would face each other in the scheduled 3:00 p.m. match.

The state title is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. Saturday.

KDHL will have the Waterville-Elysian-Morristown match and POWER 96 the Medford match on Thursday.  They both advance the next meeting would be on KDHL with the title on POWER 96 Saturday.