This is both my favorite time of year, and the most frustrating time of year.
It’s my job to let folks know when teams will be playing this week.
But it’s sometimes really hard to find out when teams play.
Several area teams won games on Saturday to determine berths into the state tournament in soccer and football. Others had opponents that were determined on Saturday, some late on Saturday.
And trying to figure out when teams might play on Sunday is difficult. Many answers won’t come until Monday morning. And some of these playoff games in soccer will be played on Tuesday or Wednesday.
So we’ll start with what we know — volleyball.
The state tournament draws were held Sunday. Battle Ground (4A), Camas (4A), Columbia River (3A) and Prairie (3A) will play in the 4A and 3A state tournaments at St. Martin’s University in Lacey beginning Friday.
Columbia River and Prairie open state with 9:45 a.m. matches on Friday. Columbia River faces Holy Names of Seattle, while Prairie meets Kamiakin of Kennewick. If both teams win, they’ll meet in a quarterfinal match later Friday.
In the 4A tournament, Camas faces Gig Harbor at 1:30 p.m. If the Papermakers win, they could meet No. 1 Emerald Ridge of Puyallup in the quarterfinals. Battle Ground plays Central Valley of Spokane at 3:15 p.m.
At the 2A state tournament at Pierce College in Lakewood, Ridgefield opens against Fife at 8 a.m., while Woodland meets East Valley of Spokane at 9:45 a.m.
At the 1A state tournament at the Yakima Sun Dome, King’s Way Christian meets King’s of Seattle at 8 a.m., while La Center meets Bellevue Christian at 9:45 a.m.
Football
Six local teams are still alive in the state tournament: Camas (4A), Union (4A), Skyview (4A), Columbia River (3A), Hockinson (2A) and La Center (1A).
Camas will play Bellarmine Prep of Tacoma at 5 p.m. Saturday at Doc Harris Stadium.
Union will play at Federal Way at 7 p.m. Friday. It will be the second playoff game for the Titans that will be a rematch of a September non-league game.
Skyview will play at Wenatchee at 7 p.m. Friday.
Columbia River will host Roosevelt of Seattle on Saturday at Kiggins Bowl. A game time has not been set.
La Center will play King’s of Seattle at 1 p.m. Saturday at Ridgefield High School.
Hockinson will play at North Kitsap of Poulsbo. We have not heard of a game day or time.
Girls swimming
The state swimming and diving championships will be Friday and Saturday at the Weyerhaeuser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way. Prelims begin at 9:45 a.m. Friday for the 3A meet, 2:30 p.m. for the 4A meet and 6:15 p.m. for the 2A-1A meet.
On Saturday, 3A finals begin at 10 a.m., 4A finals at 2:30 p.m. and 2A-1A finals at 6:30 p.m.
Girls soccer
Game times, days and locations are a complete mystery to me right now. It’s funny because the window for first-round state games starts Monday and ends Wednesday.
I’m guessing most of these games will be Tuesday or Wednesday.
Here are the local matchups: Olympia at Skyview (4A), Union at South Kitsap of Port Orchard (4A), Bishop Blanchet of Seattle at Columbia River (3A), Highline of Burien at Ridgefield (2A), Hockinson at North Kitsap (2A), University Prep of Seattle at King’s Way Christian (1A) and La Center at Seattle Academy (1A).
We will post game times, days and locations at our high school sports blog at 360preps.com on Monday as we receive them.
