Post Season (429)

Some high school teams' seasons are done in late October, but for others, like our volleyball team, are not finished until mid November. This is because of sub state. Sub state is a series of matches after the normal season. Only one of them is guaranteed, and the other two you have to earn. The way to earn them is by winning your previous games. So if you win the first one, you move on to regional semi finals,which was our game against Jefferson. Then if you win that game you continue on to regional finals, which was our game against Ankeny. If you win your regional final, then you qualify for State. If you lose any of these games, your season ends and you don't get to go to state unless you are watching other teams. State volleyball has been held at the Wells Fargo Center in the past, but recently it has been at the US Cellular Center in downtown Cedar Rapids. That explains the saying "to the cell." State volleyball is split into five different divisions, just like other sports. These divisions are 5A, 4A, 3A, 2A, and 1A. Kennedy is 5A, the biggest division. Making state is a very big achievement because only eight teams from each class make it, and this is the first time in 4 years that Kennedy has made it to state, losing in the regional final for the past 3 years. The other schools who made it to state in the 5A division are IC West, who beat Linn Mar in the regional final, Dowling Catholic, who beat Valley, Cedar Falls, who beat Marshalltown, Dubuque Hempstead, who beat Prairie,  Bettendorf, who beat Pleasant Valley, Johnston, who beat Southeast Polk, and Ankeny Centennial, who beat Sioux City East. State works the same way that regionals do; only one game is guaranteed and you have to earn your other games by winning. If you end up making it all the way to finals, you will play a total of three matches at state. Our first game, the quarter finals, is against Cedar Falls, who we have played before in tournament and conference. They beat us in the tournament, but we beat them in the conference match. If we defeat them, then we move onto the semi finals and play the winner of IC West and Bettendorf. Then if we win that, we would move on to the finals against the semi final winner from the other side of the bracket. The winner of that match would then be the state champions!