In the most unusual of high school volleyball seasons, the Paris Lady Eagles completed a perfect home record for the 2020 season with a 3-0 win over Booneville Monday night. The Lady Eagles will travel to West Fork on Thursday for their final conference match of the regular season. Paris will play a non-conference, varsity only match at Hot Springs Fountain Lake on Saturday.
Although the Lady Eagles are undefeated, including a 3-2 win at Hackett earlier in the season, Paris will likely be denied the top seed going into next week’s district tournament. The reason is a loophole in the Arkansas Activities Association’s (AAA) policy on make-up games and the determination of seeding for the state tournament due to COVID reasons. Absent from the AAA policy is an element that requires that all missed games due to COVID reasons be made up. Simply put, if a team, such as Paris, misses a game due to COVID quarantine, and finishes the season with fewer conference wins, the loss of conference games played will lower the team’s seeding to a team that has played more conference games. In short, if a team refuses to schedule a make-up game, even though there is ample opportunity to make-up the missed game, there is no penalty from the AAA for refusing to play. Paris will likely go into next week’s district tournament as a number two seed to Hackett, who will likely go as the top seed in the tournament. This, in spite that the Lady Eagles have a head-to-head win against Hackett, and have not lost a conference match. Paris lost the opportunity to play conference matches for reasons beyond their control, yet teams have the opportunity to take control and not agree to schedule the missed matches. Due to COVID, Paris lost the opportunity to play Charleston on September 22, Green Forest on September 28, Elkins on September 29, Lincoln on October 1, and Hackett on October 6. The Lady Eagles quarantine was lifted on Saturday, October 3 for most of their players, and the full Paris roster was out of quarantine on Wednesday, October 7. Dates such as Wednesday, October 7, Saturday October 10, Wednesday, October 14, and Saturday, October 17 were all available dates for make-up games. Add to this; if all of the conference games throughout the 3A West had been made-up prior to October 17, there would have been no district tournament held the week of October 19. So, just for illustration purposes, the opportunity was present from the AAA policy to not play a make-up game, gain a higher seed, and take your chances in the district tournament by playing fewer games to reach the championship by using a higher seed. As I pointed out, that scenario is also possibly unfolding in football, and it will be very interesting to see, if for example, if Booneville now having lost the opportunity to play two conference football games, will actually look at the possibility of losing a top one or two seed due to the loss of opportunities to play due to the AAA policy. Will there be more noise made by the football powers than what has happened in volleyball? We will see.
It is a tragedy that this loophole exist. Kids pay for the absence of the requirement to play the missed matches, and their parents and fans who support them all year are left wondering what has happened…how can this be? This is not the fault of any school or schools; the blame lies with the AAA for allowing it to happen.
But more on that later. Resident Press will have a preview of next week’s district tournament as soon as the tournament bracket and match-ups are known.
In Monday night’s game with Booneville, the Lady Eagles were pushed in the first two sets. Although Paris once again defeated Booneville 3-0, the Lady Bearcats competed hard in the make-up game with Paris. Booneville is to be commended for playing the make-up game, and for the progress the Lady Bearcats have made throughout the season. In fact, Booneville may be the most improved team in the 3A West conference, much like Waldron from a year ago. Booneville could be a dangerous team that could fight its way into the state tournament with the district tournament being held on their home floor next week.
Paris has struggled with good teams throughout the season. No doubt, the Lady Eagles are feeling the effects of unexpectedly having to suspend all activities for two weeks in the middle of the season. But at this point, it will be critical for Paris to continue working hard and to re-establish the momentum it had before the layoff. West Fork and Fountain Lake will provide opportunities for Paris to play its way back into the rhythm it had before the required quarantine and suspension of play. The district tournament, that was not previously scheduled, but now will be played according to AAA policy to determine state seeds from the 3A West conference, will provide another week for the Lady Eagles to get more games in before the state tournament. So, the goal for Paris is to hit their peak in two weeks so that they are again at the top of their game entering the all important week of state tournament play.
And in light of what has happened at the end of the conference season, the Lady Eagles should have plenty of motivation going into next week.
Resident Press will be in West Fork on Thursday to cover the Lady Eagles final conference match against the Lady Tigers. Watch for a recap of the match with West Fork on Friday afternoon in Resident Press.
Stay with Resident Press for Lady Eagles volleyball coverage and high school volleyball coverage all of the way to Hot Springs and the crowning of a Class 3A state champion!
