The 2017 prep volleyball regular season is in the books and five of Acadia Parish’s six teams learned their postseason fate on Sunday when the LHSAA released its playoff brackets.
Notre Dame headlines the list of area teams, earning the No. 2 seed in the Division IV playoffs.
The Lady Pios (31-10), who won four of their five games over the weekend at the ESA Tournament, will receive a bye in the opening round and then play host to winner of No. 15 Thomas Jefferson - No. 18 Loyola Prep in a regional contest.
A victory in that game would send the Lady Pios back to their second home, the Pontchartrain Center, where they would likely face No. 7 seed Episcopal in the quarterfinal round of the state tournament.
University Lab, the No. 3 seed, and Riverside, the No. 6 seed, are possible semifinal opponents should the Lady Pios advance.
Pope John Paul II is the No. 1 seed on the top half of the bracket and enters the playoffs with a 29-2 record. No. 4 Hannan and No. 5 Newman are also on the opposite side of the bracket.
Three other area teams will be vying for a trip to the state tournament in Division III.
Iota, the District 3 champion, earned the No. 14 seed and will entertain No. 19 St. Louis today at 5:30 p.m. in a first-round contest with the winner getting a trip to Baton Rouge to take on No. 3 Parkview in the regional round Thursday.
The Lady Dogs (17-17) have played St. Louis twice already in 2017, both games in tournament play, with each team winning once.
Crowley High and Rayne also earned berths in Division III and will face off in the first round as the No. 16 and No. 17 seed, respectively.
Crowley will host Rayne tomorrow at 5:30 p.m. as well.
The two teams played twice in district play in 2017 with each winning at their respective home gyms.
Crowley (21-9) finished third in District 3 with a 7-3 record while Rayne was the runnerup at 8-2.
The winner will travel to Houma to take on No. 1 seed Vandebilt Catholic on Thursday.
Northside Christian (13-15) also earned a playoff spot - No. 20 seed in Division V - and will travel to No. 13 False River for their first-round matchup. The winner will get a road trip to No. 4 Central Catholic Thursday for a regional contest.