SEISC volleyball tournament pools released

The Southeast Iowa Super Conference released pools for the 2021 conference tournament on Monday. Pool play begins on Thursday with the finals at Southeastern Community College in West Burlington on Saturday.

Both Thursday’s pool play rounds and Saturday’s finals will begin at 5 p.m. The top two teams from each pool will advance to Saturday play.

The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union’s top-ranked team in Class 1A is Notre Dame. The Nikes are the top seed in the tournament, followed by No. 7-ranked (3A) West Burlington, No. 5 (1A) Holy Trinity Catholic and No. 9 (1A) New London.

Notre Dame will be the top seed in Pool No. 1, which will be held at Wayland in the WACO school. Mediapolis is the No. 8 seed, WACO is No. 9, Pekin sits at No. 16 and Cardinal is No. 18.

Notre Dame comes in as the defending Class 1A champions, but the Nikes didn’t even make the final day of the SEISC tournament in 2020, a testament to how tough the SEISC field has become.

In Pool No. 2, Louisa-Musactine will host. That pool will be a four-team group with second-seeded West Burlington at the top, followed by seventh-seeded Winfield-Mount Union, 10th-seeded Van Buren County and the 15th seeded Louisa-Muscatine squad.

The No. 3 pool will be hosted by Wapello, and defending tournament champion Holy Trinity will be on the prowl, looking for a spot in the final eight. The Crusaders won the tournament last year, sweeping Central Lee in the final match.

Sixth-seeded Wapello is HTC’s top challenger in that pool, according to the seedings. Hillcrest Academy slides in at No. 11. Danville sits at No. 14, and Lone Tree comes in at No. 17.

No. 4 New London will be the only top seed hosting their pool, and they might need all the home court advantage they can get with Central Lee coming to town. The fifth-seeded Hawks knocked New London out in the final eight last year en route to a berth in the finals match.

Joining New London and Central Lee will be No. 12 Highland and No. 13 Columbus.

In the 2020 tournament at Southeast Community College, the Union coverage area had three teams qualify for the final eight. Winfield-Mount Union, WACO and New London all lost their first matches on Saturday.

In Saturday’s finals, the winner of Pool 1 will play the Pool 2 runner-up. The Pool 4 winner will take on the Pool 3 runner-up to fill out the top half of the bracket. On the bottom half, the Pool 2 winner will face the Pool 1 runner-up, and the Pool 3 winner will take on the Pool 4 runner-up.

SEISC TOURNAMENT POOLS

Pool 1: 1. Notre Dame, No. 8 Mediapolis, No. 9 WACO, No. 16 Pekin, No. 18 Cardinal

Pool 2: No. 2 West Burlington, No. 7 Winfield-Mount Union, No. 10 Van Buren, No. 15 Louisa-Muscatine

Pool 3: No. 3 Holy Trinity, No. 6 Wapello, No. 11 Hillcrest Academy, No. 14 Danville, No. 17 Lone Tree

Pool 4: No. 4 New London, No. 5 Central Lee, No. 12 Highland, No. 13 Columbus