Match play to settle PIAA titles in future

High school volleyball fans must become acquainted with a new format for the PIAA championships in the next school year.

The PIAA has adopted a match-play format that will increase the tournament length from one week to two weeks and eliminate the quarterfinal round robin.

“It’s about time the PIAA changed to a match-play format,” said Penn State men’s volleyball coach Mark Pavlik, during the final round of the 2012 boys tournament, which took place June 1-2 at Penn State’s Multi-Sport Facility. “Pennsylvania is one of the few states in the country that uses the current format.

“It’s ridiculous to have teams play best-of-five matches all season, switch to a best-of-three round-robin format for the quarterfinals, then have the teams come back the following day and play a best-of-five semifinals and best-of-five finals on the same day. And it’s the only PIAA sport that uses this format.”

The PIAA has used a round-robin format for its volleyball tournaments for at least 45 years.

“I can’t ever remember a PIAA tournament that didn’t have a round-robin format included,” said Bob Miller, who coached at North Allegheny for 35 years and has been retired for the past 10 years.

The format currently used for the boys and girls tournaments begins with a 16-team bracket that is concluded in five days. The first round consists of eight best-of-five matches that traditionally take place on a Tuesday. The eight winners advance to a quarterfinal round robin that takes place the following Friday, and are divided into two four-team pools. Each team plays the other three teams in its pool in a three-game format. The top two finishers in each pool advance to a best-of-five semifinal, which takes place on Saturday. The best-of-five final occurs that same day.

“Switching to match-play format is a great move,” Seneca Valley girls coach Karen Martini said. “Coaches have been pushing for a change and this is the best solution. All year long, we use a bestof-five format, then switch to a round-robin format in the middle of the state tournament. It just doesn’t make sense. Almost every other state uses a match-play format.”

The new format will force the PIAA to lengthen its tournament from one to two weeks.

“The Pennsylvania Volleyball Coaches Association made a proposal in November to the PIAA Volleyball Steering Committee,” said Melissa Mertz, a PIAA assistant executive director who serves as tournament director of both volleyball tournaments. “The proposal included a study of 20 other states. They found that 85 percent of those states use single-elimination match play exclusively, 10 percent use single-elimination until the semifinals, and 5 percent use pool play throughout. And 85 percent used a schedule that took six to 10 days.”

Mertz expects the schedule to be Wednesday and Saturday for both weeks. That means first-round action would start on Wednesday, with quarterfinals to follow on Saturday. The semifinals and finals would be held the following Wednesday and Saturday.

“The sites for the finals will remain the same, with Central York hosting the girls tournament and Penn State hosting the boys tournament,” Mertz said. “We would like to move the boys finals to Rec Hall [at Penn State], but it may not be available next spring, since they are installing an airconditioning system.”

Coaches from the WPIAL have varying opinions, with most girls coaches preferring the change and most boys coaches disapproving of the change.

“I’m not a big fan of the change,” Derry Area boys coach Shawn Spencer said. “Volleyball has been recognized over the years by its tournament play, and roundrobin play has been a big part of that. The PIAA tournament has been a good measure of that. We had a good thing. I can’t understand why they are changing it.

“Having a round robin for

the remaining eight teams was great for the fans. Each team would get to play three teams and have a chance to come back the next day for the semifinals, and it’s all at one site. The new format requires a team that makes it to the finals to take four trips instead of two. The travel cost will go up for each school. And it will be very hard for our parents to make that many trips.”

North Allegheny coach Dan Schall can see both arguments, but has a preference.

“I don’t see anything wrong with the current setup,” Schall said. “It gives the parents and fans a chance to come to one venue and see their team play in three matches. Having a matchplay format will force our parents and fans to make more trips that will most likely be very lengthy.”

Norwin coach Al Warden had mixed feelings on the subject.

“I think match play is the way to go, but I’m going to miss this format,” Warden said. “We didn’t win this thing, but what a great weekend of volleyball for the kids and their families. It’s an event that the families enjoy.”

Bishop Canevin’s girls team got a taste of the current PIAA format in 2010. Canevin participated in the quarterfinal round robin that took place at Central York High School that year.

“No other sport uses this format,” Bishop Canevin coach Kevin Walters said. “You would never see the PIAA hold its basketball semifinals, then have the championship game three hours later. If we use match play all season, then why switch to a different format for the PIAA championships?”

Walters said he wouldn’t mind staying with the current format, however, if the PIAA found a better site than Central York, or had the three classes at different sites.

“Central York is not big enough for all three tournaments,” Walters said. “We have 24 teams [eight in each class] in a facility with four courts and very little seating for the fans. This format could work if we had a better facility, like a college. It’s too bad that Penn State is not an option for the girls tournament. Another option would be to hold each class at a different site.”

The quarterfinal round robin at the 2011 PIAA girls tournament played a part in the decision to change. With three classes and three rounds for each class, a total of nine rounds were played during the round robin. One pool in Class AA ended in a three-way tie for second place, requiring two onegame tiebreakers to determine the second semifinal qualifier.

“We had to wait six hours between our first and second match,” Martini said. “And our third match didn’t start until 10:30 p.m. The kids didn’t get to bed until 1 a.m. and they had to play again the next morning at 9.”