HobbsDailyReport.com
The first South Fork 2A and Northwestern Foothills 2A conference girls’ volleyball tournaments begin tonight (Monday).
The Northwestern 3A-4A isn’t playing a conference tournament.
The regular season ended for all three of the Greater Hickory area’s three new conferences last week.
This is the first of four years in leagues formed by the most recent statewide realignment.
For complete final league standings and conference tournament pairings, see the volleyball standings also posted on the website.
South Fork 2A
East Lincoln won the conference title — going 13-1 and finishing a match up on Maiden — and opens the tournament at home at 6 p.m. tonight against eighth-seeded West Lincoln.
The Mustangs’ only conference loss was 3-0 at home on Oct. 5 to Maiden. East Lincoln won at Maiden 3-0 on Sept. 28.
Maiden’s other conference loss was 3-2 in early September at North Lincoln.
Other first-round matches tonight, all at 6 p.m. are: No. 5 Lincolnton at No. 4 Bandys, No. 6 Lake Norman Charter at No. 3 N. Lincoln and No. 7 Newton-Conover at No. 2 Maiden.
The tournament moves to Maiden on Tuesday for semifinal matches at 5 p.m. and 7 p.m., and the championship match is Wednesday night.
Northwestern Foothills 2A
West Iredell went undefeated in the conference (12-0) and has a first-round bye for the tournament, which begins with matches at the higher seeds.
Fred T. Foard (10-2) finished second, falling only to the Warriors (3-1 at West Iredell, 3-0 at Foard), and Bunker Hill (8-4) finished third by falling twice to West Iredell (3-0, 3-0) and Fred T. Foard (3-0, 3-0).
The semifinals and finals of the tournament are Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, and all of the tournament will be played at the highest remaining seeds.
Northwestern 3A-4A
The league is not having a conference tournament so its postseason bids will be determined by the final conference standings.
Watauga went 14-0 and will gain the top 3A seed from the conference while McDowell (4-10) finished one game better than South Caldwell and gets the top 4A seed.
The rest of the conference teams will wait for playoff news, with Hickory assured of advancing because of its second-place finish (11-3).
Hickory lost twice to Watauga (3-0, 3-0) and once to Alexander Central (3-2).