Saint Mark’s has earned the top seed in the 2021 Delaware Interscholastic Athletic Association volleyball state tournament, which begins Wednesday with four first-round games. Four more games will be played Thursday.
The 24-team bracket was announced Oct. 31. Along with the Spartans, three other Catholic school teams will participate in the tournament. Padua is the second seed and has received a first-round bye, along with Saint Mark’s and the teams seeded third through eighth. Ursuline earned the 14th seed, and Archmere is 16th.
Ursuline and Archmere will play Wednesday, both at home. The Raiders will play No. 19 Appoquinimink, and the Auks will host the 17th seed, Tower Hill. All matches in the first two rounds will begin at 6:30 p.m.
The Raiders and Jaguars did not play this season. Ursuline finished 7-7, while Appo is 9-6. Archmere and Tower Hill will stage a rematch of a game played on Oct. 26, a five-set thriller won by the Hillers. The Auks finished the season 8-7, and Tower wrapped up at 10-5.
The winner of the Archmere match will travel to Saint Mark’s on Nov. 5. The Spartans finished the regular season 14-0, including a win over the Auks. The Appquinimink-Ursuline winner will meet the third seed, Red Lion Christian Academy, on Nov. 5. The Lions are 13-2.
Padua will host the winner of the match between No. 18 Concord and No. 15 Smyrna. The Pandas swept Smyrna on Sept. 25. They did not play Concord this season.
The quarterfinals will be played on Nov. 9, with two of the matches at the St. E Center and the other two at Saint Mark’s. The first match begins at 6 p.m., with the second scheduled for 7:30. Saint Mark’s will host the semifinal round on Nov. 11, again at 6 and 7:30. The consolation and championship matches will be Nov. 15 at a location to be announced.
