Postseason Primer
Sep. 23—The fall season seems to go by faster and faster each year, and with that, the postseason is upon us.
The girls golf tournament got it started last weekend and Monday as the Daleville and Lapel teams advanced to regional as did Grace Wiggins of Pendleton Heights as an individual. They will compete Saturday at Edgewood in the regional, all just one step away from the state finals next weekend.
In the days and weeks that follow, tournament draws will be held to determine the route that lay ahead for area teams.
Sunday evening, the IHSAA will air the first tournament selection show at 7 p.m. for girls and boys soccer. Those tournaments begin the following week with Anderson and Pendleton Heights competing at Class 3A sites at Noblesville (boys) and Hamilton Southeastern (girls) while Anderson Prep and Liberty Christian coed teams will play at Taylor.
One change to the soccer tournament this year is semifinal and championship games at the regional level will no longer be played on the same day. The semifinal games will be held Oct. 14 at school sites with the title matches to be played the following Saturday at preordained locations. There is extra motivation for the Lions to win a third straight sectional as they could host that regional semifinal.
Monday at 7 p.m. the boys tennis draw will be held with sectional matches later in the week. This will also be the first time the Anderson boys tennis sectional will be played entirely on the new courts at Anderson High School.
The volleyball draw will be held Oct. 3 at 7 p.m. with three area schools set to host sectionals the week of Oct. 10 and a fourth designated as a regional site.
Anderson Prep and Liberty Christian will head to Daleville for Sectional 55, where the Broncos are co-favorites along with Wes-Del. Madison-Grant will have home court advantage as it looks to repeat its Sectional 39 title and could be joined by another area team from Sectional 40 at Alexandria, where the Tigers will be joined by Elwood, Frankton and Lapel.
The winners of Sectionals 39 and 40 will play at the Elwood regional Oct. 23, with semifinals in the morning and the championship later that evening.
Pendleton Heights and Anderson will play in the difficult Sectional 9 at Yorktown where the Arabians are one of several state-ranked teams involved, including the Tigers and Mount Vernon.
Shenandoah will make the drive to Sectional 41 at Union County.
Frankfort and Huntington North are the north semistate sites while the south locations are at Columbus East and Jasper with the state finals at Worthen Arena on the campus of Ball State.
Cross country sectionals will be held Oct. 9 at 10 a.m. with Daleville at Delta, Madison-Grant at Marion and all other area schools running at Pendleton Heights. Regionals will be the following Saturday at Delta and Marion, and the semistate will be held once again at Huntington University on Oct. 23.
And finally, that just leaves the football tournament. The six-class sectional draw will be held Oct. 10 with games scheduled to begin Oct. 22 at various sites. The football playoffs continue with regional games Nov. 12, semistate Nov. 19 and the state finals at Lucas Oil Stadium on Nov. 26 and Nov. 27.
Contact Rob Hunt at rob.hunt@heraldbulletin.com or 765-640-4886.
