Just simply some fantastic matches tonight in 1A and 2A regional semifinal action! We highlighted 5 matches earlier today that we believed should be exciting, 2 of those went 4 sets and the other 3 went five sets. Upsets included Stanton over Mormon Trail (3-2) and St Edmond over Saint Ansgar (3-1), both in 1A. Looking forward to regional final action in 3A, 4A and 5A tomorrow night!!

We’ve got the regional semifinals tonight for 1A and 2A. There are 16 matches tonight in each class and we’ve highlighted five that we believe could be highly competitive. 2A: Missouri Valley at Tri-Center: Western Iowa Conference foes will be matching up for the 3rd time this season, as Missouri Valley won 2-1 on a neutral court Sept 12th, while Tri-Center won 3-1 at home on Sept 29th. This should be a fun contest between two pretty even squads. We’ll go with the home team, Tri-Center. Garner Hayfield Ventura at Lake Mills: GHV comes into this matchup 30-2, recording their best season since at least 2008. But in order for their season to continue they will have to win at Lake Mills, a school whom they’ve lost 30 out of the last 31 matches against, including the last 18 in a row. If they win it, this would be the best win on their schedule all season. We have Lake Mills in a competitive match. 1A: Wapello at North Cedar: this is the first meeting between these two schools in the Bound era. North Cedar has had their best season in a decade, sitting at 25-6. Wapello has played a much tougher schedule. This should be a tight contest, but we’ll go with the Arrows in a mild upset. Westwood at East Mills: this is another matchup of teams that haven’t met in the Bound era. Westwood has played a significantly more challenging schedule, but East Mills is playing their best volleyball of the season having won 9 of their last 10, and has more weapons. We like East Mills in this one. Woodbury Central at West Monona: West Monona is the higher seed but Woodbury Central won the prior matchup 2-1, just two weeks ago. That match was at Woodbury Central while this one will be hosted by West Monona. These are Western Valley Conference foes that are very familiar with each other. This one will likely go at least 4 sets, we’ll take the home team to advance to the regional final. Good luck to all players and coaches competing tonight! We’ll have the 3A, 4A & 5A regional finals tomorrow, with the state tournament pairings to be released tomorrow night.

Last night’s semifinal action had some great contests! We had 5 lower seeds win, two in 3A: Williamsburg over Knoxville 3-1 and Mid-Prairie over Center Point-Urbana 3-2. In 4A we had 3 lower seeds win, all in 5 setters. ADM over Winterset, Burlington over Grinnell (reverse sweep 16-14 in the 5th) and Lewis Central over Bishop Heelan (also a reverse sweep). All of the favorites won in 5A, however Ames pushed Waukee to 5 sets. We highlighted 7 matches yesterday that we thought could be outstanding contests, and 4 of the 7 went to 5 sets. We’ve got a short break until Monday, when the 1A & 2A semifinal matches will take place.

We are really excited to be moving to the semifinal round of the regional postseason, with 3A, 4A & 5A action tonight. This is when we really start seeing some great matchups. We are going to highlight several that we are specifically excited about. Starting in 3A: Van Meter travels to Kuemper Catholic to play the Knights for the 3rd time this season. Both of the previous matches were played at Van Meter, with Van Meter winning 2-1 (25-13, 22-25 & 15-8) on Aug 24th and 2-0 (21-16 & 23-21) on Oct 8th. Wouldn’t be surprised if this one goes 5. Williamsburg @ Knoxville: Remarkably, these two teams haven’t played each other since 2017. This is a battle of two teams with a top 15 power rating and should be a fun match. Moving to 4A: ADM @ Winterset: we have indicated previously that we think the IGHSAU got the seeding wrong here and ADM should have been the 2 seed with Winterset the 3 seed in the region. We had ADM 12th and Winterset 17th in 4A when the seedings were released. The Union had Winterset 14th and ADM unranked. Regardless, ADM beat Winterset at Winterset last Thursday and will have to do it again at Winterset tonight to advance. Burlington @ Grinnell: these two matched up in a weekend tournament at Benton, Sept 19th. Grinnell prevailed 2-0 in a tight match (21-18, 21-19). This should be another fun one. Lewis Central @ Bishop Heelan: these two played a conference matchup Sept 8th at Heelan in a 5 set battle. Heelan won the first two sets (25-14, 25-21), Lewis Central took the next two (27-25, 25-23) and Heelan took set 5 (15-13). This could be one of the best matches of the 4A postseason. And 5A: North Scott @ Cedar Rapids Kennedy: these teams played Aug 27th at North Scott and the Lady Lancers took that one 2-1 (25-21, 23-25, 16-14). This one will however, be at Kennedy and should be exciting. Ames @ Waukee: Ames has had back-to-back 20-win seasons for the first time since 2013, but to reach the regional final they will have to win at Waukee, which hasn’t happened since 2009. These two played at Waukee earlier this season, with Waukee escaping 2-1 (21-9, 19-21 & 23-21). This could be another tight match. Good luck to everyone competing tonight, looking forward to the action!

Our thoughts and predictions for 2A & 1A regional action, continuing tonight with the quarterfinal round.

Postseason is here!! With 3A, 4A & 5A regionals kicking off tonight, we have pulled together our thoughts and predictions for each region. This is setup to show the top seed in each region and the projected opponent for each round. Note that the number before each school is the current Bound power rating in the respective region. We’ll have 2A & 1A out tomorrow.

Final rankings before regional pairings are released (tomorrow) for 3A, 2A & 1A:

Here are our final rankings before regional pairings are released (tomorrow) for 5A & 4A:

Here are the Week Five composite rankings for 3A, 2A & 1A:

Here are the Week Five composite rankings for 5A & 4A:

Continuing with our Power Grids for 3A, 2A & 1A: 3A: Western Christian and CPU are the only 3A schools without a loss to teams outside of the top 30. The difference however, is that Western Christian is 6-3 against the top 30 while CPU is 1-7. DNH has played 17 of their 24 matches against top 60 schools (10-7 record). 2A: Hinton’s record against the top 100 is impressive at 8-1, but there are two other things that stick out here. 1) Grundy Center has played 19 matches against top 100 schools and Denver has played 20, very challenging schedules for both. 2) Riverside is on the other end of the spectrum having played only 2 matches against top 100 schools. Riverside has had a strong program for the last handful of years or so, but they seemingly always come into postseason having only faced the local competition in SW Iowa. I’m not sure that fully prepares them for what they end up facing late in the 2A postseason. 1A: The entire class of 1A has 7 wins over top 50 schools, and 5 of those 7 wins have come from Ankeny Christian. Besides Ankeny Christian, Janesville is the only other 1A school with a winning record against the top 100, Ankeny Christian is 8-1 and Janesville is 7-6.

We are posting what we call our Power Grids. This is a different way of looking at the rankings and strength of schedule. Below are those grids for 5A & 4A along with a comment or two for each class: 5A: Yes, DCG is the only undefeated 5A program, but they have played the fewest matches against top 25 schools out of all of the 15 ranked schools. How is this going to play out in the postseason? Hard to say, but we may have an indication this weekend, as DCG and Waukee Northwest are both competing in the Urbandale tournament. Needless to say, if they play each other, the winner will get the overall #1 seed in 5A when the pairings are released next Thursday. 4A: Assumption is the only 4A school with more than 2 wins against top 25 schools. Sioux Center & Assumption are the only 2 4A schools without a loss outside of the top 25. Also, Assumption, Western Dubuque and Norwalk are the only 3 4A schools with a winning record against the top 50.

Here are our Week Five Rankings for 3A, 2A & 1A:

Here are our week 5 rankings for 5A & 4A: