Lee, Monument Mountain Ranked First in Western Mass Tourney Fields
The Lee and Monument Mountain volleyball teams were seeded first in their respective classes for the PVIAC's Western Mass tournament in the final rankings that were released on Saturday evening.
The Spartans are ranked first in Class B, where they will host Commerce on Tuesday in the quarter-finals.
Lee is seeded first in Class D and will entertain Athol in the round of eight.
The semi-finals and finals of the regional tournament are scheduled for Thursday and Saturday.
Unlike years past, the Western Mass tournament is not part of the state tournament. The MIAA state tournament begins after the regular season concludes on Thursday of this week.
With the advent of a statewide state tournament in most sports and the elmination of the familiar sectional format, the Pioneer Valley Interscholastic Athletic Conference opted to preserve the Western Mass tournament tradition by creating a tournament in the last week of the MIAA's regular season.
The quarter-final and final games will count toward a team's MiAA record for state tournament seeding purposes. The Western Mass championship game is an "exemption" game that will not count toward teams' state rankings.
Berkshire County has seven volleyball teams moving on to the Western Mass tournament starting Tuesday.
Joining Monument Mountain in Class B is Wahconah, who is seeded fifth and will be on the road at No. 4 Chicopee in the quarters. Pittsfield just missed out on the Class B field; it was ranked ninth in the rankings that were released on Saturday.
In Class C, Taconic is seeded sixth and will head to Southwick in the quarter-finals.
Four of the eight teams in the Class D regional bracket call Berkshire County home.
In addition to the top-seeded Wildcats, the class features No. 2 Mount Greylock, No. 5 Lenox and No. 7 Mount Everett.
The Eagles will be at the Mounties on Tuesday. Lenox travels to No. 4 Ware.
Boys Soccer
Five Berkshire County boys soccer teams made the regional tournament, an all five will be on the road in Monday's first round.
In Class B, No. 6 Monument Mountain will be at No. 3 St. Mary's, and No. 7 Wahconah is headed to No. 2 Hampshire Regional.
In Class C, Lenox got the No. 6 seed and heads to Smith Vocational, and No. 5 Mount Greylock visits No. 4 Franklin County Tech.
Mount Everett got the No. 8 seed in Class D and will start the tournament at top-seeded Granby.
Girls Soccer
Five local teams will be home in the first round of the tournament on Monday -- three in Class C.
No. 2 Mount Greylock will be home against No. 7 Westfield Tech. No. 3 Drury hosts No. 6 Smith Vocational. And fourth-seeded McCann Tech is home against No. 5 Frontier.
In Class D, Lenox and Mount Everett are seeded second and third, respectively. The Millionaires are home on Monday against No. 7 Ware. The Eagles get No. 6 Smith Academy. Hoosac Valley earned the No. 8 seed in Class D and starts the tourney at No. 1 Monson.
In Class B, No. 5 Wahconah and No. 7 Monument Mountain start the tournament on the road at No. 4 Chicopee and No. 2 South Hadley, respectively.