Familiar foes clash in state playoffs

It’s state tournament time and there are 18 local football, soccer and volleyball teams still alive.

That’s a lot of teams to cover. But there are a couple of matchups that will make our job easier this week, even though they may seem like odd matchups.

On Friday at the Class 3A state volleyball tournament in Kennewick, Columbia River will face Prairie in the first round at 9:45 a.m.

Yes, that’s right. Two teams from a four-team league will meet in the first round at state.

But that’s not the only all-GSHL first-round matchup this week.

In the 4A state football tournament, Skyview will play at Camas in a first-round game at 4 p.m. Saturday.

Space prevents me from going into all the specifics on how this occurred. Just let me say that you shouldn’t rant against this if you don’t understand how this came to be.

The simple explanation is that the WIAA’s bracket construction depends a lot on random draws. That’s because most WIAA member schools believe that random equals fair.

Agree or disagree as you will. But basically, it is what it is.

Here are other matchups this week involving local teams. For most football and soccer games, times and locations will be officially set on Monday.

Football

Other than the Skyview-Camas matchup, the other 4A GSHL team in action this week is Battle Ground. The Tigers will travel to play Gonzaga Prep of Spokane. The game is tentatively set for 1 p.m. Saturday.

In the 3A state tournament, Columbia River will host Juanita of Kirkland at 7 p.m. Saturday at Kiggins Bowl.

In the 2A state tournament, Hockinson will play Liberty of Renton. The game is tentatively set for Friday night at Battle Ground’s District Stadium.

Volleyball

The Toyota Center in Kennewick will be the site of the 4A and 3A state tournaments.

In the 4A tournament, Battle Ground will open against Eisenhower of Yakima at 1:30 p.m.

In 3A, it’s the aforementioned River-Prairie matchup.

The 2A state tournament will be played at St. Martin’s University in Lacey.

Ridgefield will face Liberty at 9 a.m. Woodland meets Pullman at 11 a.m.

At the 1A state tournament in the Yakima Valley SunDome, King’s Way Christian will face Lakeside of Nine Mile Falls at 11:30 a.m.

Girls soccer

First-round matchups of the state tournament can be played Monday through Wednesday. As many of our local teams played Saturday, that makes Monday unlikely. And Wednesday is Veterans Day, and many schools are not in session that day.

That leaves Tuesday the most likely date for the matchups that have not been set already. Matchups will be made official on Monday.

A tough draw awaits Camas in the 4A state tournament. The Papermakers will host Lake Stevens at 6 p.m. Tuesday. If the Papermakers win, Camas will travel to face the winner of Gig Harbor-Skyline in this weekend’s quarterfinals.

In Class 3A, Prairie will host Bishop Blanchet in the first round, and Columbia River will travel to play Seattle Prep. If the Falcons and Chieftains win in the first round, the 3A GSHL co-champions will renew their rivalry this weekend in the state quarterfinals.

In Class 2A, Ridgefield will host Fife at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The Spudders would be home again in the quarterfinals.

Hockinson will host Burlington-Edison in the first round. The Hawks would travel in the quarterfinals.

In Class 1A, King’s Way Christian will host University Prep of Seattle Prep in the first round. The Knights would also be home in the quarterfinals. Seton Catholic will travel to Yakima to play LaSalle in the first round. If the Cougars survive that, they’ll return home for the quarterfinals.

Tim Martinez is the assistant sports editor/prep coordinator for The Columbian. He can be reached at 360-735-4538, tim.martinez@columbian.com, or follow his Twitter handle @360TMart.