Postseason Process

As postseason officially kicks off today with three boys districts underway today. I had got a request with a great question about how postseason works. Below I have done my best to explain how the postseason works for both the boys and girls as they are slightly different. To the best of my ability, this is what I understand postseason play to include.

*Team postseason play turns to state scoring with is 6 singles matches and 3 doubles matches*

Boys:

Districts

-Teams are sorted into districts to begin postseason play. Typically this is dictated by geography. Teams are allowed to enter 2 singles players and 2 doubles pairs. Draws are then made the morning of the districts day and these draws has implications for two different reasons, individuals and team. This is a single elimination tournament. The two entries for each school are to be on the opposite side of the draw.

-----Individual implications, where the champion and runner-up for both singles and doubles qualify for the state singles/doubles tournament.

-----Team implications are put upon the individual entries gaining points for the team. Singles wins/byes earn 2 points where doubles wins/byes earn 3 points. The team that has the most points at the end of the day is the district champion and advances to substate. The 2nd and 3rd place team will play a dual meet on the Saturday immediately following districts with the winner advancing to substate with the 1st place team.

Preliminary Substate

-The 2nd and 3rd place teams from each district play a dual meet on the Saturday immediately following districts. The winner of the dual meet advances to substate

Substate

-District team winner and winners of the preliminary substate meets advance to substate. Substate is set up by having two districts paired with each other. The winner of district A will play the winner of the prelim substate match of district B. Winner of district B will play the winner of the prelim substate match of district A. Winners of these matches play each other in the substate final (now the team state quarterfinals). Whichever team advances through their substate/quarterfinal will reach the team state final four.

Team State

-The 4 teams that make it through their substates/quarterfinals will play for the championship in one day. These 4 teams are reseeded 1-4 with #1 playing #4 and #2 playing #3. Winners play for the championship and the losers play for 3rd place.

Individual State

-District champions and runner-ups in the singles and doubles draws have qualified for the individual state tournament. The morning of the state tournament both the singles and doubles draws are made where 4 seeds for both draws are determined in the coaches meeting. This 16 player singles draw and 16 doubles pairs draw is double elimination where the top 8 are placed.

Girls:

Individual Regionals

-Individual regionals is almost identical to districts on the boys side. The main difference is that there are no team implications. Teams are allowed to enter 2 singles players and 2 doubles pairs into their regionals. The regional champions and runner-ups qualify for the individual state singles and doubles tournament.

Team Regionals

-Instead of having individual and team implications from one tournament like the boys side, the girls are just placed into one big draw if you will. It is broken down into 4 regions, again mostly geography based. A host school is determined for the first couple rounds. The regional finals (quarterfinals) is the first round of the state tournament and the winning teams in this round advance to the final four held at one site in one day just like the boys side.

Team State

-The 4 teams that make it through their regions/quarterfinals will play for the championship in one day. These 4 teams are reseeded 1-4 with #1 playing #4 and #2 playing #3. Winners play for the championship and the losers play for 3rd place.

Individual State

-Individual Regional champions and runner-ups in the singles and doubles draws have qualified for the individual state tournament. The morning of the state tournament both the singles and doubles draws are made where 4 seeds for both draws are determined in the coaches meeting. This 16 player singles draw and 16 doubles pairs draw is double elimination where the top 8 are placed.