SEC volleyball tournament starts Tuesday

WASHINGTON — Winning time has arrived in the battle for the Southeast Conference volleyball championship, and after a competitive regular season, the two-day tournament promises to be a six-way slugfest.

All six of the SEC’s teams will meet in Washington for Day 1 on Tuesday night. Each team will play either two or three games, and then one week later in Fort Madison, the second half of games will take place.

SEC teams played five regular season games this year, and every team in the league won at least one and lost at least one. Burlington and Fairfield are the Top-2 seeds after each finishing 4-1 in the regular season. Keokuk, Mt. Pleasant and Fort Madison all went 2-3, and Washington finished 1-4.

Washington’s lone win in the SEC was Burlington’s only loss. The Demons swept Burlington on the road to start conference play. Burlington beat Fairfield on the road in four sets for the Trojans’ only loss.

You can throw the regular season standings out the door, as only the conference tournament counts for the SEC title, although the shared 4-1 records for the Grayhounds and Trojans may pay dividend on Night 2.

The tournament is set up for the Top-2 teams to play the very last match on Day 2, ideally setting up a psuedo-conference championship game with the assumption the top teams will take care of business. Through three years of SEC tournament play, that has only happened once.

Burlington went undefeated to win the annual SEC tournament in 2019. That year, the Grayhounds did meet Fort Madison with the conference title on the line. Burlington, newbies to the conference that fall, swept both sets, and earned their school’s first SEC title in any sport.

In 2020, Burlington and Fort Madison were the Top-2 seeds once again, but Mt. Pleasant played spoiler by going 4-1, including a win over the Grayhounds. Burlington knocked off Fort Madison in three sets in the final game of the night, and via the tiebreaker, the Panthers finished the tournament in first.

Last season, Mt. Pleasant had its repeat championship wrapped up by the final game of the night, but this time it was Fairfield who played spoiler. On their home gym, the Trojans soured Mt. Pleasant’s big night by beating the Panthers in three sets.

Now one year later, the battle rages on again. Will Mt. Pleasant rise to the top for the third-straight year? Will Fairfield or Washington win the conference tournament for the first time, or is the title headed south, whether it be back to Burlington or into Fort Madison or Keokuk?

The action all starts on Tuesday at 5 p.m., inside the Washington High School gym.