FHSAA Volleyball Rankings: Gulf Breeze beach volleyball cracks top 10 in entire state

The defending beach volleyball state champions have cracked the top 10 of the entire state.

The latest Florida High School Athletic Association beach volleyball and boys volleyball rankings were released on Monday. Any games played on Monday were not included in the team’s rating or strength of schedule.

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With limited beach and boys volleyball squads in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties, we’ll combine the rankings every week through the end of the season.

The beach volleyball playoffs begin on April 21 with district tournaments, while boys volleyball starts about a week later on April 28.

Here are the third FHSAA beach volleyball rankings and the second boys volleyball rankings for area teams, plus a way-too-early playoff watch.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL RANKINGS

Class 2A

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• Gulf Breeze (18.840) – first in District 1-2A, first in Region 1-2A, second in Class 2A, seventh overall in state

• Pace (7.994) – fourth in District 1-2A, eighth in Region 1-2A, 25th in Class 2A, 71st overall in state

Way-too-early playoff watch

District tournaments aren’t for couple weeks, but it’s still fun to examine what the playoff scenarios would look like if the regular season ended today as far as region tournaments.

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District champions automatically advance to the region tournament after the district tourney, and there are four at-large bids per region. For the playoff watch, we’ll presume that the top team in each district wins the district tournament and moves onto regionals – that’s what we’re going to share below.

Rankings are bound to change after district tournaments as well, so we’ll pretend that they didn’t change at all through districts to make things a little easier. Remember: anything can happen in the playoffs.

Here’s what the region tournaments would look like.

Region 1-2A

• 1. Gulf Breeze (1)* vs. 8. Pace (1)

• 2. Bishop Kenny (3)* vs. 7. Leon (2)

• 3. Chiles (2)* vs. 6. Crestview (1)

• 4. Mosley (1) vs. 5. Beachside (4)*

Notes: Remember, beach volleyball is a unique sport once it gets to region tournaments with a pair of play-in games before the first round of the state tournament. The first play-in game is represented above. Top-seeded Gulf Breeze would host Pace, which sneaks in as an at-large bid team at No. 8, to begin the tournament. There will be a re-seeding starting the first round for the Top 16 teams, which is in Tallahassee.

BOYS VOLLEYBALL RANKINGS

Class 2A

• Gulf Breeze (7.723) – first in District 1-2A, third in Region 1-2A, 22nd in Class 1A, 67th overall in state

Way-too-early playoff watch

District tournaments aren’t for another few weeks, but it’s still fun to examine what the playoff scenarios would look like if the regular season ended today as far as region tournaments.

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District champions automatically advance to the region tournament after the district tourney, and there are four at-large bids per region. For the playoff watch, we’ll presume that the top team in each district wins the district tournament and moves onto regionals – that’s what we’re going to share below.

Rankings are bound to change after district tournaments as well, so we’ll pretend that they didn’t change at all through districts to make things a little easier. Remember: anything can happen in the playoffs.

Here’s what the region tournaments would look like.

Region 1-2A

• 1. Nease (2)* vs. 8. Belleview (4)

• 2. North Marion (4)* vs. 7. North Bay Haven (1)

• 3. Gulf Breeze (1)* vs. 6. Bartram Trail (2)

• 4. Ponte Vedra (2) vs. 5. St. Augustine (3)*

Notes: Gulf Breeze, the presumed District 1 champion, dropped a spot in the region rankings but still hosts in the region quarterfinals as a district champion. The Dolphins would take on Bartram Trail in the first round. St. Augustine, despite being ranked fifth, would still host Ponte Vedra in the first round as a district champion.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: FHSAA Volleyball Ranks: Gulf Breeze beach volleyball ranked No. 7 in state