Rochester, Valley to host volleyball sectionals

Rochester, Culver to host volleyball regionals

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Rochester will host both a Class 2A volleyball sectional and regional, and Tippecanoe Valley will also host a sectional, per sectional sites that the IHSAA Executive Committee approved at its June 23 meeting.

In addition, Culver will again host a Class 1A regional, which it has hosted annually since the IHSAA went to a two-match regional format in 2017.

Rochester will host Class 2A, Sectional 36, which will include Lewis Cass, North Miami, Pioneer, Winamac and Wabash in addition to the Lady Zs. None of these schools won a sectional in the fall of 2021.

Rochester would also host the regional the following Saturday. Rochester hosted Covington in a one-match regional in 2015 and Wheeler in 2012, but they have not hosted a four-team regional in over a decade.

Tippecanoe Valley will host Class 3A, Sectional 18, which will include Bremen, Culver Academy, John Glenn and Knox in addition to the host Lady Vikings. Culver Academy is a two-time defending sectional champion. Valley has never won a volleyball sectional title.

The winner of the sectional at Valley will advance to the NorthWood regional.

Also, Marquette Catholic will host Class 1A, Sectional 50, and Southwood will host Class 1A, Sectional 53.

Argos and Culver are in Sectional 50, and the winner of that sectional will advance to the Culver regional. The other four teams are Marquette Catholic, Oregon-Davis, Triton and Westville. Triton has won seven sectional titles in the last eight years.

Caston is in Sectional 53. Lakeland Christian, Northfield, Southern Wells and Southwood round out the five-team field. Southwood is the defending sectional champion.

The Sectional 53 champion feeds into the regional at Clinton Central.

Plymouth and Frankfort will be the semistate hosts.

Sectionals will be held statewide from Oct. 11-15, regionals will be Oct. 22, and semistates will be Oct. 29. Worthen Arena on the Ball State campus in Muncie will host the state finals on Nov. 5.