First Impressions of the Iowa Regional Pairings

<!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The regional pairings are out.&nbsp; The road to state is paved.&nbsp; As someone who is an Iowa native and has worked with high school volleyball in other states, Iowa does their post season extremely well.&nbsp; Most states group their regionals/sectionals entirely by geography, not taking into account the success of teams within an area.&nbsp; In Wisconsin, there is no way two teams from the same city would make it to the state tournament.&nbsp; In other states, the NICL would essentially be the regional tournament, with one, maybe two teams out of that conference making it to state.&nbsp; Bound is always a tab open for me and I will look forward to checking to prepare for seeing these teams live in Coralville.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>Region 7 and Region 8 in Class 5A </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The MVC has been an interesting conference to monitor over the course of the season.&nbsp; Cedar Falls is always one of the best teams in this group, but City High was able to pull off a five set upset of the Tigers. Iowa City West would then beat City High in five sets the next week.&nbsp; Cedar Rapids Prairie has put together quite a month where they have wins over Waukee Northwest and Clear Creek-Amana.&nbsp; In Region 7, Cedar Falls is the top seed with the two and three seed being Dubuque Senior and Iowa City Liberty.&nbsp; Senior advanced to the regional final in 2023 and has Creighton commit Campbel Drapeau who can take over a match.&nbsp; Iowa City Liberty might be the most dangerous team come tournament time.&nbsp; There will be a prelude to this potential match on October 15 where Liberty and CF will square off in the MVC Tournament.&nbsp; Cedar Rapids Prairie earned the top seed in Region 8 where the two and three seed are Waukee and Johnston.&nbsp; Waukee has already swept Johnson and has played a rugged schedule and is battle tested from CIML play.&nbsp; Flip a coin when it comes to these regions.&nbsp; A lot can happen in the next couple of weeks.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>Class 4A Region 6 </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>If seeding plays out in this region, I think this regional final is going to be a ton of fireworks between Pella and Norwalk.&nbsp; Pella is the top seed, but Norwalk is a returning state tournament team.&nbsp; These are two extremely talented teams where Pella already has a sweep over Norwalk from earlier in the season.&nbsp; Pella has one of the most dynamic players in the area where [player_tooltip player_id='389942' first='Katie' last='Scheckel'] leads the Dutch over 250 kills and nearly 300 assists.&nbsp; Norwalk is a relatively young team where they play a rugged schedule with top teams from across the state.&nbsp; They also have one of the top freshmen in the state in [player_tooltip player_id='560368' first='Elle' last='Hatlevig'] who has over 300 kills this season.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>Western Iowa - Class 4A </strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>The Sioux City and Council Bluffs area is looking to make the trip across the state to Coralville where there could be multiple teams heading East, and they don't have to head to Central Iowa for it. Council Bluffs Lewis Central and Sergeant Bluff-Luton are the top seeds in Region 5 while Bishop Heelan and MOC-Floyd Valley are the top seeds for Region 2.&nbsp; In years past Heelan has made trips to Norwalk (where they have won), but thats a big difference getting to play at home in a regional final versus getting on a bus for a few hours. Lewis Central and Heelan have experience, especially with their senior class.&nbsp; [player_tooltip player_id='215458' first='Brooke' last='Larsen'] the South Dakota State commit just finds a way to win for the Titans while [player_tooltip player_id='217136' first='Maliyah' last='Hacker'] of Heelan has well over 1,000 kills and would like to end her career on the big stage.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>Class 3A Region 6</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>There are some regions that are pretty stretched out. For example, in Class 2A Region 2 there could be a potential regional final between Shenandoah and Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont where those two schools are three hours from each other. There is probably not a lot of familiarity between these two programs. In Class 3A Region 6, there are going to be some conference matchups and plenty of familiar faces on their rounds to head to the regional final. Sioux Center, who was in Class 4A in 2023 and the Class 3A runner up in 2022 is the top seed. The second seed looks like Cherokee who is 19-2, a class 3A state participant in 2023, and could potentially run into Unity Christian team who is accustomed to playing top teams throughout Northwest Iowa. </p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph {"fontSize":"medium"} --> <p class="has-medium-font-size"><strong>Southeast Iowa Up For Grabs</strong></p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>We knew there would be some really interesting matchups in especially Class 2A and 3A where there is a lot of balance between some of these regionals.&nbsp; The first one that really stood out to me was Class 3A Region 8.&nbsp; The top three really standout with Mid Prairie, Wilton, and West Liberty (Wilton has always been a Class 2A team). All of these teams are in the same conference where Mid Prairie swept Wilton and Iowa City Regina, but lost an early season conference match against West Liberty.&nbsp; Keep tabs on this region because there are multiple teams who can punch their ticket to the state tournament.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph --> <!-- wp:paragraph --> <p>In Class 2A Region 8, we have another bracket where there is plenty of balance with Pella Christian taking the top seed where the other side of the bracket has Iowa City Regina and North Mahaska (again seeding has to play out).&nbsp; Pella Christian has multiple losses to Pella and Indianola, Iowa City Regina has wins over West Liberty, a ranked 5A Cedar Rapids Prairie team, and has two big tournaments upcoming at Center Point-Urbana as well their conference tournament. Pekin only has one loss coming at the hands of Pella Christian, but will have a tournament filled with highly competitive in Knoxville.&nbsp;</p> <!-- /wp:paragraph -->