By By KEVIN TRAVIS, Sports Editor
Six area volleyball teams qualified for the N.C. High School Athletic Association 1A state playoffs.
Three of those teams earned home playoff games for the first round, which begins Saturday. The Southside Seahawks, Williamston Tigers and Jamesville Bullets will all host matches Saturday.
Playing on the road in the first round will be the Northside Panthers, Bear Grass Bears and Columbia Wildcats.
Coach Elizabeth Pruden’s Seahawks (14-8), the No. 2 seed from the Atlantic Conference, will play host to the West Columbus Vikings (4-14), the No. 2 seed out of the Southeastern Conference. Southside, which knocked off top-seeded Williamston to claim the conference tournament championship, and West Columbus will begin play at 5 p.m.
Coach Herbie Rogers, who led Williamston (15-6) to the regular-season title in the Atlantic Conference, and the Tigers will play host to the North Edgecombe Warriors (5-9), a wild-card entry out of the Tar Roanoke Conference. The match will begin at 2 p.m,
Jamesville (16-2) won the Tideland Conference championship. The Bullets, 53-6 over the last three years, will welcome the Perquimans Pirates (12-9), the No. 3 seed in the Albemarle Conference, into town. Saturday’s match will begin at 4 p.m.
Northside (8-11), the No. 3 seed in the Atlantic Conference, will travel to Camden (14-9) to face the Bruins, the No. 2 seed out of the Albemarle Conference. The match will begin at 10 a.m.
Bear Grass (13-7), the No. 3 seed in the Tideland Conference, will visit Gates County in the first-round match. The Red Barons (12-10) are the No. 2 seed in the Tar Roanoke Conference.
Columbia (7-12), the No. 4 seed in the Tideland Conference, makes the trip to Louisburg. The Warriors (19-6) are the top seed out of the Tar Roanoke Conference.
Second-round action gets started Tuesday.
The Southside-West Columbus winner faces the Jamesville-Perquimans winner; the Williamston-North Edgecombe winner battles the Cape Hatteras (10-7, Tideland No. 2 seed)-Southeast Halifax (9-6, Tar Roanoke No. 3 seed) winner; the Northside-Camden winner takes on the Louisburg-Columbia winner; and the Bear Grass-Gates County winner plays the Manteo (21-1, Albemarle No. 1 seed)-Weldon (8-6, Tar Roanoke No. 4 seed) winner.
The district round will be held Thursday, the sectional round Oct. 25, the regional round Oct. 28 and the state championship Nov. 1. The 1A state championship will be held at 7:30 p.m. at Reynolds Coliseum on the N.C. State University campus.
NCHSAA 1A State Tournament
First Round
10 a.m. – Northside at Camden
2 p.m. – North Edgecombe at Williamston
4 p.m. – Perquimans at Jamesville
5 p.m. – West Columbus at Southside
TBA – Columbia at Louisburg
TBA – Bear Grass at Gates County