By Ray Hamill — A pair of H-DNL teams will continue impressive playoff runs in the state volleyball playoffs this week.
The Ferndale Wildcats and Del Norte Warriors have both advanced to the NorCal tournaments after memorable runs through the North Coast Section playoffs, which ended over the weekend.
The Del Norte girls came close to winning a first-ever NCS championship for the program after reaching this year’s Division-5 final.
The No. 1 seeds for the NCS tournament hosted Saturday night’s championship game against No. 3 International out of San Francisco, but it was the lower seeds who prevailed in five sets.
The loss, however, did not end the Warriors’ season.
After placing in the top three in their section bracket, the Del Norte girls secured qualification for the NorCal Division-5 bracket.
On Sunday, they received the No. 14 seed and were paired against No. 3 Castilleja.
The two teams will face off in the opening round in Palo Alto on Tuesday night at 6.
The Gators are 15-10, while Del Norte is 17-15.
The winner of that game will advance to the bracket quarterfinals on Thursday where they will play either No. 6 Berean Christian or No. 11 Summerville.
The Wildcats, meanwhile, have advanced to the state playoffs for the first time in program history after reaching the NCS Division-6 semifinals last week.
After getting the better of Mendocino in their quarterfinal, the Ferndale girls lost to Anderson Valley in the semifinals.
However, that was enough to qualify the Redwood League co-champs for the NorCal Division-6 tournament, which gets under way on Wednesday night.
On Sunday, the Cats received the No, 7 seed in the seven-team D-6 NorCal bracket.
They will open on the road at No. 2 Woodland Christian on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
The winner of Wednesday’s game will advance to the weekend semifinals against either No. 3 St. Vincent de Paul — the NCS D-6 champion — or No. 6 Etna.
Ferndale is 19-10-1 on the season, while Woodland Christian is 36-5.
Unlike divisions 1 through 5, there is no state championship game in Division 6, just a NorCal championship.
