Not sure exactly how the circumstance came about, but the Bergen County and Passaic County tournament seeding meetings are both scheduled to take place this evening. As popular as that “Divergent†movie has been recently, the word of the spring in North Jersey sports seems to be “Convergence†— hey, if Ridgewood can pull off Baseball Day and Lacrosse Day on the same date (last Saturday) without a hitch, then two seeding meetings on one night for volleyball should be no problem.
The Bergen coaches will convene at 7 p.m. in Hackensack, and the Passaic coaches will meet at 7:30 p.m. at Passaic Tech in Wayne. Unless a generous helicopter pilot spontaneously offers a ride, Taglines won’t be able to make both in person. But thanks to the wonders of computer technology, Varsity Aces plans to have both schedules posted this evening, as soon as they reach our inbox.
The next question: Who will be seeded where? Our best guesses after the jump…
BERGEN COUNTY: Nine teams are eligible to enter. Last year, only eight did, but since everybody has at least one victory this time around (two went in winless last season), I’d imagine all will be in the mix.
Borrowing a page from my old WGHT pals, here is how Taglines would seed the Bergen County boys volleyball tournament (if, you know, he actually had any input):
- Fair Lawn (15-4 thru Tuesday) — The defending champs have only played two Bergen opponents (Don Bosco & Bergenfield) but are unbeaten against North Jersey competition since the 2012 county final, including 11-0 this spring
- Don Bosco (6-2) — The 2012 champs were the last school from Bergen to defeat Fair Lawn, and their only setback to a Bergen team so far came at the hands of the Cutters.
- Hackensack (11-2) — The resurgent Comets’ only in-county loss is to Don Bosco, and their last game before the seeding is today at Lakeland.
- Bergen Catholic (6-6) — Lost to Hackensack and Bosco, but has beaten all other Bergen foes.
- Bergen Tech (6-6) — Losses are to Fair Lawn, Hackensack and BC. So far, this is working out very neatly.
- Teaneck (3-8) — Here’s where things get tricky. Half the Highwaymen’s losses came against teams ahead of them on this list. One came against Bergenfield, but does that mean the Bears should be ahead of them? Teaneck does have a quality win against Passaic Tech, and it beat the next team on this list, so this is what I’m going with. Remember, though, this is strictly unofficial and for speculative purposes only.
- Garfield (5-5) — True, I watched the Boilermakers post an epic victory over Passaic Valley on Tuesday, but they’re a bit tough to get a read on since they play teams from all over with their independent schedule. Only three of their matches have been against Bergen teams: A win over Lyndhurst and losses to Teaneck and Hackensack. At the very least, that should be enough to keep them out of a potential preliminary round.
- Bergenfield (1-7) — The Bears’ victory over Teaneck gives them one more win than the following team on the list, and frankly all of their losses have come against strong competition, including BC, Fair Lawn, Wayne Valley and Kearny (don’t forget, the Kardinals were the top seed at last weekend’s Hackensack Tournament).
- Lyndhurst (2-8) — Though the Golden Bears do have one more win than the Bears in front of them, they are still in search of their first victory against in-county competition. Plus, it’s their first go at this… better seeding no doubt will come with more experience down the road.
Should all nine teams in the county enter, No. 8 would host No. 9 in the prelims, with the winner advancing to face No. 1 in the quarterfinals. The format is the same for…
PASSAIC COUNTY: Nine teams in this county, too. How convenient! Things appear to be a bit more cut-and-dry here, at least at the top of the list. How Taglines would seed it:
- Wayne Valley (11-2) — No-brainer. The defending champs are unbeaten in the county, and their only two losses are to the aforementioned Cutters of Fair Lawn.
- Lakeland (10-3) — Their lone Passaic County loss is to Wayne Valley. The others are to Don Bosco and Fair Lawn.
- Passaic Tech (8-4) — The good: Tech is 6-2 versus Passaic teams, has a quality win over Hackensack and a “quality loss†to Wayne Valley (the opponent is quality, the loss still unwelcome). The bad: Well, not really bad so much as head-scratching. The Bulldogs lost to an enigmatic Wayne Hills squad and rebuilding Teaneck. They have a HUGE meeting with Bergen Tech today, which could decide the Big North Liberty title, and a win there would make them a very worthy 3-seed in my mind.
- Passaic Valley (5-8) — It might be odd to say, but you just can’t look at the W/L record in this situation. Five of the Hornets’ losses are to teams in The Record Top 5, one is to a team knocking on the door (Bergen Catholic) and another is to a very good Jefferson team. A win over Garfield would have strengthened their case, but PV went down swinging, plus it owns a win over the next team on the list, which is a tiebreaker for Taglines, anyway.
- Wayne Hills (6-6) — Want an even crazier stat? All six of Hills’ losses are to teams in the Big North Independence, which might be the toughest division in the state this side of the Greater Middlesex Conference. They could be as high as a 3-seed. In fact, if they beat Bergen Catholic today, that likelihood increases greatly, although then you’re then left with the Triangle Conundrum: Passaic Valley beat Wayne Hills, but Wayne Hills beat Passaic Tech… hm, can’t really complete the triangle since PV and Tech don’t play until May 12. Moving on…
- Clifton (4-8) — This has been a rare “rebuilding year†for the Mustangs, though they’ve gone to three sets in both matches against Passaic Tech. That would make for a most interesting 3/6 match-up between the two teams, but again, this is just a guess.
- Passaic (4-8) — The Indians have beaten the following two teams on the list, but heads up: they host Kennedy today, and a Knights victory could throw in a bit of a monkey wrench.
- Kennedy (2-9) — As I was saying, a Knights victory today would forge a season split between Passaic and Kennedy, and it would put the Knights at 3-5 in the Liberty Division while dropping the Indians to 2-6. My best guess: today’s winner gets the No. 7, leaving the other team to host the prelim round against…
- Eastside (0-11) — Been a tough season for the Ghosts, who are still very young. Then again, they won in the prelims last year, so who knows?
Yeah, that’s a great question. Who DOES know exactly how things will shake out at tonight’s seeding meetings? Well, the coaches do, anyway. That is why their calls as to who goes where will be posted on Varsity Aces later this evening. Until then, see you ’round the courts…
—GT