LJ g VB 1 Bishop's 3 - CIF First Round

La Jolla's girls volleyball team dropped a 3-1 decision at Bishop's Nov. 14 in a CIF first round playoff game.

But the big news, really, was the fact that the Vikings (who finished 24-11 overall) competed in the Open Division playoffs for the first time. That's pretty heady stuff. The Open Division is made up of the elite teams for the season.

Last year, La Jolla traveled to San Dieguito and took a hard defeat in the first round of the Division I playoffs.  That was the Vikings' first time at that level.

This year, with the playoffs reorganized once again, they were elevated to the Open Division.

Until 2013, playoff placings were based on school enrollment: big schools played big schools, smaller schools like La Jolla played other small schools.

But then, last fall, came the revolution of the power rankings. Placement was now based a school's power rankings over the previous five years. The problem with that last year for La Jolla was that after having five strong years, they graduated many of their starters the year before and put a young, inexperienced team on the court. The San Dieguito Mustangs, much more powerful, showed them how things could be done at a higher level.

Now there is a move to place teams in the Open Division based on same-year performance. At least, this is what is being done in other sports. The goal is to try to avoid the kind of thing that happened to La Jolla's young team last year--being placed too high for their current performance, based on previous years' performances.

The Vikings, though seeing their season end, were 9-3 in the Western League. Middle hitter-blocker Emma Willis received a full-ride athletic scholarship to the University of Denver to play volleyball next year.


Copyright 2014 Ed Piper