Nation's best volleyball teams heading to Durango

The Durango Fall Classic Tournament gets underway Friday in Las Vegas with 48 volleyball teams squaring off for the championship trophy, including four teams from the MaxPreps Xcellent 25 presented by the Army National Guard.

Those teams figuring to challenge for the title include Assumption (Louisville, Ky.), La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad, Calif.), Xavier College Prep (Phoenix) and Redlands East Valley (Redlands, Calif.). All four teams are members of the Xcellent 25 with Assumption leading the quartet at No. 5, Redlands East Valley at No. 6, Xavier College Prep at No. 20 and La Costa Canyon a newcomer this week at No. 23.

One team that won't be in the mix is defending champion Archbishop Mitty (San Jose, Calif.), which declined to attend this year's tournament. The Monarchs, who are in a rebuilding season after graduating seven players to Division I programs, defeated Newport Harbor (Newport Beach, Calif.) for the championship en route to an undefeated season and a No.1 national ranking.

Assumption could use a similar run at Durango to propel itself back into the race for No. 1. A loss to Muncie Burris (Muncie, Ind.) in August dropped the Rockets from the No. 1 spot in the Xcellent 25, but a win at Durango - arguably the top volleyball tournament in the country - would go a long way toward boosting the Rockets back into contention should the four teams ranked ahead of them falter. The Rockets finished third at last year's tournament, were the runners-up in 2008, 2007 and 2006 and won the tournament in 2005.



Redlands East Valley, meanwhile, finished seventh at last year's tournament. While most of the other contenders have a whole month's worth of games under their belt, the Wildcats have played only a handful of games. Redlands East Valley does sport one of the nation's top players, however, in Krista Vansant, who was a MaxPreps Preseason All-American.

Xavier College Prep is undefeated on the season in Arizona and recently won the prestigious Westwood Tournament. Durango was a stumbling block for the Gators in 2009 as they finished in 23rd place and competed in the Bronze Division.

La Costa Canyon, the 2008 tournament champion and national No. 1, is off to a 3-0 start. The Mavericks lost early in pool play last year, but ended up winning the Bronze Division.

Tournament officials have set up the eight pools for Group A and all eight look to be very competitive. None, however, might be more competitive than Pool 3. Played at Foothill High School, Pool 3 features Xavier Prep, San Diego Section power Torrey Pines (San Diego), four-time Durango champion Mira Costa (Manhattan Beach, Calif.) and 2009 Utah 5A state champion Pleasant Grove (Utah).

Pool 2, played at Green Valley, also looks formidable with La Costa Canyon, Redondo Union (Redondo Beach, Calif.) of the Southern Section, four-time Nevada state champion Green Valley (Henderson, Nev.) and Edison (Huntington Beach, Calif.), which was ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section last week.

Favored Assumption plays in Pool 1 at Durango with Marymount (Los Angeles), El Dorado (Placentia, Calif.) and St. Lucy's (Glendora, Calif.), the latter three all from the Southern Section. Meanwhile Redlands East Valley tangles with Long Beach Poly (Calif.) and Thousand Oaks (Calif.) from the Southern Section and Northview (Duluth, Ga.), a team that participated in the Louisville Invitational Tournament two weeks ago.



Another Kentucky team, Sacred Heart (Louisville, Ky.), is in Pool 6 along with California teams Lakewood (Calif.), Clovis West (Fresno, Calif.) and Great Oak (Temecula, Calif.). Kamehameha (Honolulu) is in Pool 7 along with California teams Los Alamitos (Calif.), St. Mary's (Stockton, Calif.) and Bishop O'Dowd (Oakland, Calif.).

Four different states make up Pool 4 with Oregon state champion Central Catholic (Portland, Ore.) facing off against Gilbert (Ariz.), Bingham (South Jordan, Utah) and Santa Barbara (Calif.).

Returning Durango runner-up and California Division I state champion Newport Harbor (Newport Beach, Calif.) is in Pool 8 along with Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood, Calif.), Wilson (Long Beach, Calif.) and South (Torrance, Calif.).

Group B consists of four pools: Chugiak (Eagle River, Alaska), Riverside (Port Coquitlam, British Columbia), Silverado (Las Vegas) and Foothill (Henderson, Nev.) are in Pool 9; Clovis (Calif.), Bishop Gorman (Las Vegas), Rim of the World (Lake Arrowhead, Calif.) and Durango (Las Vegas) are in Pool 10; Newbury Park (Calif.), Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco), Galena (Reno, Nev.) and Shadow Ridge (Las Vegas) are in Pool 11, and Buchanan (Clovis, Calif.), Coronado (Henderson, Nev.), Centennial (Las Vegas) and Seaquam (Delta, British Columbia) are in Pool 12.

The first and second place teams from Group A after pool play advance to a championship qualifying round. The winners of the qualifying round advance to the eight-team Championship Bracket and the losers advance to the eight-team Silver Bracket. All of the third place teams advance to the Bronze Bracket qualifier.

The fourth place teams from Group A and the first and second place teams from Group B advance to a knockout round. The winners advance to the Bronze Qualifier. The winners of the Bronze Qualifier play in the Bronze Bracket and the losers play in the Competition Bracket.



The losers from the knockout round, along with the third and fourth place teams from Group B, play in the Classic Qualifier. The winners advance to the Classic Bracket and the losers advance to the Contender Bracket.