RENTON — It will be all prep girls at regionals this weekend as three Peninsula teams qualified for regionals Friday and Saturday.
And all three teams will be playing at the same venue.
Starting off will be the Clallam Bay girls, who finished third at the Tri-District 1B Tournament to earn a trip to the 1B regionals.
The Bruins will begin regionals play at 6 p.m. Friday at Mount Tahoma High School in Tacoma against Riverside Christian, a school just outside of Yakima. Clallam Bay is 17-6, while Riverside Christian, which went 9-3 in the CWB 1B League, and is 11-10 overall.
The Bruins, seeded ninth in the 1B regionals, must win this game to move on to state. Riverside Christian is seeded 16th.
If Clallam Bay wins, they move on to the state 1B tournament in Spokane on March 4 and begin their state tournament play against the loser of Pomeroy and Wellpinit.
Neah Bay, the winners of the Tri-District 1B tournament, have already qualified for the state tournament in Spokane. The Red Devils will play a regionals game, strictly for seeding, at noon Saturday against Mount Vernon Christian, also at Mount Tahoma High School.
If the Red Devils win, and they beat Mount Vernon Christian 73-31 in the championship game of the Tri-District Tournament this weekend, they get a first-round bye at state. If they lose, they will be in the same position as Clallam Bay and would have to play a loser-out first-round game at state.
Neah Bay is 17-5 on the season and is seeded fourth at regionals. Mount Vernon Christian (20-5) out of the Northwest 1B/2B League just happened to be seeded fifth, which is why the two teams are meeting a second time in a week. Neah Bay has beaten the Hurricanes twice this season, also outdueling them 52-37 early in the season.
The Port Angeles girls (19-4 overall), winners of both the Olympic League 2A Division and the West Central District III 2A Tournament, kept climbing up the Ratings Percentage Index rankings during their playoff run, earning an automatic bid to state.
The Roughriders, a six seed at regionals, will follow Neah Bay at Mount Tahoma High School, playing three seed Tumwater at 2 p.m. Saturday.
Tumwater won the Evergreen 2A League, going 9-1 in league and 22-2 overall. Tumwater finished third at the District 4 2A Tournament.
Tumwater and Port Angeles have a couple of common opponents — Sequim and W.F. West. Tumwater edged the Wolves 52-45, while Port Angeles beat Sequim twice by scores of 64-42 and 61-45. Port Angeles beat W.F. West 47-44, while Tumwater split two games to W.F. West, losing 57-47 and winning 46-38. W.F. West is also a state tournament-bound team.
If the Riders win, they get a first-round bye at the 2A state tourney at the SunDome in Yakima and begin play on March 5. If they lose, they will have to play a first-round loser-out game on March 4 in the SunDome.
