Pine Creek is the No. 1 seed in Class 4A. Falcon also made the field. (Photo: District 49)
AURORA — Pine Creek and Discovery Canyon were selected as the top seeds when the Class 4A and 3A playoff football brackets were announced on Sunday morning.
Both teams went unbeaten at 10-0 during the regular season, and were atop the final Wild Card points standings for their respective classifications.
Pine Creek is the defending 4A champion. The Eagles are riding a 21-game winning streak, the largest of any 11-man team. Their last loss came to 5A Columbine on Sept. 12 of last season. Pine Creek hasn’t lost to a 4A team since dropping a game to Ponderosa in Oct. 2012 — a span of 23 games.
The Eagles went wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team in CHSAANow.com’s rankings during the regular season. They own wins over five teams which made the playoff field.
Other top seeds, and those hosting first-round games, include: No. 2 Fort Collins, No. 3 Montrose, No. 4 Denver South, No. 5 Pueblo South, No. 6 Dakota Ridge, No. 7 Longmont and No. 8 Windsor.
Montrose was the runner-up in last year’s 4A title game. The Indians (9-1) have yet to lose to a 4A team this season, with the lone loss coming to 5A Lakewood.
Discovery Canyon, meanwhile, has been No. 1 in the CHSAANow.com poll and the Wild Card points for a few weeks now. The Thunder have a number of key wins, including on the road at Holy Family and over Pueblo East. They also beat Rampart, a 4A playoff team.
On Friday, Discovery Canyon held off an upset attempt by beating Canon City in overtime.
Other first-round hosts in 3A are No. 2 Evergreen, No. 3 Roosevelt, No. 4 Pueblo East, No. 5 Lutheran, No. 6 Rifle, No. 7 Holy Family and No. 8 Conifer.
One thing’s for sure: There will be a new champion in 3A. Coronado, which won last year’s title, moved up to 4A (and made the playoffs). Likewise, last year’s runner-up Silver Creek also moved up.
Eaglecrest is the No. 1 seed in 5A. (Tim Visser/TimVisserPhotography.com)
AURORA — Eaglecrest, Lewis-Palmer and Eaton nabbed the top seeds when volleyball’s regional tournament brackets were released on Monday morning.
Eaglecrest is the top seed in the Class 5A field and is set to host No. 24 ThunderRidge and No. 36 Liberty in its regional.
Grandview, Regis Jesuit, Rampart, Chaparral, Pine Creek, Cherokee Trail, Douglas County, Cherry Creek, Fairview, Ralston Valley and Legend will also host regionals. See the full 5A bracket here.
The top 12 teams (and regional hosts) were all seeded strictly based upon the MaxPreps computer rankings at the regular season’s end. All league champions earned automatic bids to regionals, and the remaining teams were selected based on the same MaxPreps rankings.
Lewis-Palmer volleyball is 4A’s No. 1 seed. (Matt Daniels)
Lewis-Palmer heads the 4A field, and will host No. 24 The Classical Academy and No. 36 Weld Central. Ponderosa, Cheyenne Mountain, Montrose, Valor Christian, Mullen, Mead, Berthoud, Pueblo West, Niwot and Air Academy are also regional hosts.
The 3A regional tournament field is led by No. 1 Eaton, which will host No. 24 Middle Park and No. 36 Denver Science & Tech – Green Valley Ranch. This is the first postseason appearance for a GVR team in the school’s short history.
Other 3A regional hosts are Valley, Bayfield, University, Colorado Springs Christian, Manitou Springs, Platte Valley, Sterling, Faith Christian, Pagosa Springs, Coal Ridge and Olathe.
The 1A and 2A regional brackets were also released after those two classifications completed district play this past weekend. Those fields were not seeded by a committee, but instead the districts determined regional placement.
COLORADO SPRINGS — Anything can happen in the midst of an intense rivalry game.
The No. 1-ranked Rampart Rams were forced to learn that lesson the hard way as they suffered their first league loss of the year, falling to rival, and No. 9, Pine Creek.
The Rams (16-3 overall, 5-1 5A Colorado Springs Metro League) were able to take the first set 25-13, but that was all the momentum he could muster as the Eagles (12-5, 6-0) rode the energy from the home crowd to sweep the remaining sets 25-23, 25-19, 26-24 to claim the Metro League title.
“I told my team to expect to play five (sets) because it was going to be a war,” Eagles coach Paul Waring said. “It was that way last year and it’s going to be that way forever as long as Pine Creek and Rampart are around.”
It appeared that the Rams were going to maintain the strong play they exhibited in the first set as they built a 12-7 lead early in set No. 2. But that’s when the Eagles went with a heavy dose of Alyssa Brinton who totaled five kills down the stretch to take that second set.
The rest of the match almost played out as a slugfest between Brinton and Rams hitter Janice Jin. Jin became the go-to hitter for the Rams to try and counter the offensive output from Brinton.
“(Brinton) is a good hitter and I think our blocking and defense had a hard time adjusting to her,” Rams coach Nikki Kinzer said. “We tried to work on it in practice but she had some shots that we haven’t seen yet, so kudos to her for figuring out how to take advantage of that against us.”
The ultimate downfall for the Rams came from a combination of unforced errors and struggling to get a side-out for long stretches. The Rams led the third set 10-7. but a 6-0 run for the Eagles gave them a quick three-point lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.
“We just kept our composure the whole match,” Brinton said. “Rampart’s a very composed team as well so we just had to keep each other up.”
With their backs against the wall going into the fourth set, the Rams came out swinging. Early on, the two teams battled back and forth, trading points along the way. Of the Rams’ first 11 points, four came on kills from Jin, who continued to try and will her team to a win.
“Janice is quick — real quick,” Waring said. “She’s such a dynamic player and when she’s moving laterally across the net there’s so much to watch that if you’re a half-second behind, the ball is down.”
League play has concluded for both teams, although they will play more regular season games prior to diving into districts, regionals and the state tournament.
Thursday, the Eagles host Fruita Monument, then travel to Ponderosa for the Mustang Classic on Saturday.
The Rams will play in the Cheyenne Mountain Tournament on Friday and Saturday where they could see either Cheyenne Mountain or Lewis-Palmer again. Both team beat Rampart earlier in the year.
The Rams will use the loss to the Eagles and the tournament this weekend to overcome adversity and prepare for playoffs where they are expected to make a deep run.
“Tonight (Pine Creek) did a good job on defense figuring us out,” Kinzer said. “We’re going to see more of that as we get into the postseason so it’s something we need to work on.”
Elsewhere in 5A, Rampart continued to lead the way, and Grandview moved up three places from No. 5 to No. 2 after a week which included a win over then-No. 2 Eaglecrest.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Regis Jesuit volleyball returned to the 5A poll this week. (Ray Chen/ArrayPhoto.com)
Regis Jesuit has returned to this week’s CHSAANow.com Class 5A volleyball rankings.
The Raiders went 3-0 last week and are now 11-6 this season. They returned to the poll at No. 10. Regis Jesuit was last ranked on Sept. 1.
Elsewhere in 5A, Grandview moved from No. 8 to No. 5.
Each of the five No. 1 teams stayed the same this week. Those are Rampart (5A), Lewis-Palmer (4A), Eaton (3A), Resurrection Christian (2A) and Fleming (1A).
The 4A poll added Air Academy (No. 10), 3A added Faith Christian (No. 10), Cedaredge (No. 10) joined 2A and Norwood (also No. 10) was new to 1A.
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.
Eaglecrest is No. 2 in this week’s 5A volleyball rankings. (Jack Eberhard/JacksActionShots.com)
There was some upheaval in the Class 5A volleyball rankings this week as both Eaglecrest and Cherokee Trail moved into the top five.
The Raptors (10-2) jumped from No. 5 to No. 2 in CHSAANow.com’s poll, while Cherokee Trail went from No. 6 to No. 3.
Rampart received 11 first-place votes and remained atop the 5A poll. The ranking added Denver East at No. 10 this week.
Each of the other No. 1 teams remained the same this week, as well, including Lewis-Palmer (4A), Eaton (3A), Resurrection Christian (2A) and Fleming (1A).
The rankings, voted upon by coaches and select media members, are the official polls of the Association. Polls are released each Monday.
Voted upon by coaches and media members around the state. New voters can sign up by emailing rcasey@chsaa.org. These rankings have no bearing on postseason seeding.