Volleyball tournament placings and pairs

Newton North, the top seed in Division 1, is looking at three-peat. Although the Tigers have become great hitters over the past two years (Abigail Wright and Chloe Lee), senior hitter Devon Burke and second-year setter Sasha Selivan are arguably the best duo in the state.

No. No. 2 Brookline and No. 4 Attleboro have an advantage in hitting depth, making them top contenders. No. No. 3 Lincoln-Sudbury, No. 5 Needham and No. 7 Barnstable are not far from finals appearances.

In Division 2, No. 1 Westborough didn’t miss a beat despite earning two-time Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year Quinn Anderson. With senior Georgia Tyrell as the top outside hitter and classmate Sam Norman serving dish sets, the two-time defending champion Rangers completed another season that would have been undefeated had they not played Newton North. The Hockomock is well represented here with No. 2 Oliver Ames and No. 6 Canton. No. No. 3 Billerica and No. 7 Longmeadow enter undefeated.

Winners of Division 3 for the first time in 2023, Weston had a rollercoaster of a season but managed to take the top seed with almost the entire Championship squad back. Medfield, last year’s runner-up, is the second seed. No. 13 Shawsheen is the only undefeated entry. No. 10 Dennis-Yarmouth and No. 4 Old Rochester have played against each other in three consecutive postseasons. If it happens a fourth time, it would be in the finals.

Ipswich remained undefeated in the regular season as the Tigers aiming for their fourth Division 4 title in a row. They come in at number 2 from last year’s number two Bellingham. Last time the teams went to five sets. Another team that finished second as the top seed this time: Bourne in Division 5. Defending champion Mt. Greylock is the number 4 seed.

View the postings and links here.

The MIAA girls volleyball seedings and pairings were released Wednesday after a Hampden County Superior Court judge upheld her temporary restraining order, preventing the governing body from penalizing Minnechaug Regional High School for failing to submit full-season schedules on time.

More than a dozen schools in western Massachusetts failed to comply with an MIAA rule requiring them to submit full schedules, including future regional tournament games, by Sept. 13. Their league, the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference, holds its own tournaments after the regular season. season and before the state tournament. The schools that were penalized failed to list the dates of their future postseason regional tournament games as “TBA” or “to be announced” on their schedules.

Of all the schools that didn’t follow the rules, only Minnechaug, along with individual Monson High School families, sued the MIAA, claiming the organization unfairly punished them by forfeiting their regional tournament games register, with a restraining order filed Monday.

The state tournament schedules were initially scheduled to be released Tuesday. But the MIAA delayed the process to request an emergency hearing in Hampden County Superior Court to challenge the restraining order, which was issued Monday.

Hampden Superior Court Judge Tracy Duncan said in a handwritten order on Wednesday, after hearing the MIAA’s objections during Tuesday’s emergency hearing: “The TRO will remain in effect.”

She ordered the MIAA to drop forfeiture penalties and barred the MIAA from recording the results of games played by the Minnechaug and Monson teams “in a manner other than how the scores actually occurred.”

The judge also stated that the MIAA “shall maintain and promulgate rankings and determine MIAA tournament eligibility based on correct and accurate results of play, unaffected by any penalty from MIAA for non-conforming schedule entries.”

Bob Hohler contributed reporting to this story.

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AJ Traub can be reached at [email protected].