PORT ANGELES — North Olympic Peninsula fall preps sports entered the postseason this week with boys tennis and cross country teams competing in assorted league championship tournaments or races.
Girls swimmers and divers have one last shot to qualify for postseason competition at the Olympic League’s Divisional meet today at Olympic High School.
A glance at the football postseason path will appear in Friday’s prep football preview in the Peninsula Daily News.
Girls soccer and volleyball are still wrapping up the regular season and here’s a rundown of where the North Olympic Peninsula teams stand.
Girls Soccer
Port Angeles (8-2-0, 11-2-1 and 26 points) remains the front runner for the Olympic League 2A Division crown with the Roughriders holding a slim two-point advantage over North Kitsap (9-1-0, 12-1-1). Each team has two games remaining.
Due to the NHL-hockey style scoring rules used in the Olympic League (three points for a win, two points for a shootout win and a point for a shootout loss) Port Angeles (no shootout wins, two shootout losses) leads the Vikings (three shootout wins) despite an additional loss in the standings.
If the Riders win out in games at Bremerton tonight and at home against Olympic on Tuesday, they’ll earn the league championship, a first-round bye in the district playoffs and would likely host a district playoff game at Wally Sigmar Field at Peninsula College at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5.
A stumble by Port Angeles and the Riders would miss out on the league title and the first-round district bye, but would still likely host a district playoff game at Sigmar Field, at noon on Saturday, Nov. 2.
Sequim (5-5-0, 7-5-1, 14 points) can go a long way toward sealing up a district playoff berth with a win against North Mason (5-5-0, 5-6-0, 14 points) at home tonight.
The Wolves and Bulldogs are tied for the fourth and final district playoff spot and trail Bremerton (5-6-0, 7-6-0, 16 points) for third with each squad holding a game in hand over the Knights.
Sequim visits cellar-dwelling Kingston (0-10-0, 1-12-1) on Tuesday.
If the Wolves can finish third, they’ll play the South Puget Sound League’s No. 4 team at Franklin Pierce High School in Tacoma at 4 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 2.
If Sequim takes fourth, they’ll head to Franklin Pierce for a 2 p.m. game Saturday, Nov. 2 against the SPSL No. 6 squad.
Olympic 1A
With Chimacum not fielding a team this fall, Port Townsend (0-3-0, 1-9-0) is the default Olympic League 1A No. 2 seed and will visit the Nisqually No. 3 for a loser-out district playoff game Saturday, Nov. 2.
Volleyball
Port Angeles (5-5, 6-6) is likely to make its first playoff appearance of any kind since the 2013 Roughriders qualified for the Class 2A state tournament.
Port Angeles is tied with Kingston (5-5, 7-5) for third with Olympic (3-6, 4-9) and Sequim (3-7, 4-8) in fifth and sixth places, respectively.
The Riders can seal a playoff berth with a win at home against Bremerton tonight or against Olympic on Monday.
The top four Olympic League teams will compete in the Olympic League Volleyball Championships at the league’s top regular-season finisher (North Kitsap or North Mason) on Saturday, Nov. 2. All four league teams advance, but upsets could upend the league seeds to the West Central District Tournament which opens Nov. 7 at North Mason and Franklin Pierce high schools.
Olympic League 1A
Tonight’s Senior Night matchup between Port Townsend (1-4, 1-11) and Chimacum (1-3, 4-8) will decide the league’s second seed to the West Central District Tournament.
The winner will visit the fourth-place Nisqually League team in a loser-out contest on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
Evergreen
Forks (3-2, 9-3) sits in third place in the Evergreen League behind first-place Elma (6-0, 10-2) and second-place Montesano (4-1, 9-2) with three league games left to play.
To leapfrog the Bulldogs for second, the Spartans would need to beat Hoquiam and Montesano and hope for a Bulldogs loss to winless Tenino.
Forks is likely looking at a loser-out district match against the Trico League runner-up at Montesano High School at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 6. A win and the Spartans would move into the double-elimination portion of the district tournament and would need to win two matches to earn one of just two seeds.
North Olympic League
Neah Bay (6-0, 7-4) is the frontrunner for the North Olympic League’s top seed to the Tri-District Tournament and will likely face the winner of a loser-out game between the District 1 No. 6 and the District 2 No. 2 on Nov. 5.
Clallam Bay (4-2, 7-4) is looking like the league runner-up, so the Bruins’ postseason is likely to include a loser-out game against the No. 3 team from District 1 on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
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Sports reporter Michael Carman can be contacted at 360-417-3525 or mcarman@peninsuladailynews.com.
