Three teams will look to extend title streaks in Wednesday’s district championship events.
The Wednesday schedule includes a District 2 championship doubleheader in volleyball, the district field hockey championship and the eight semifinal games that will determine Friday’s boys soccer finalists.
Delaware Valley carries three streaks into its Class 4A girls volleyball championship match with Hazleton Area at North Pocono at 5 p.m.
The Lady Warriors have won all five Class 4A championships since the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association switched from three to four classes in girls volleyball. They have won 11 straight district titles overall, each in the largest enrollment classification at the time.
Delaware Valley, the Wyoming Valley Conference champion and the district’s only unbeaten, has won 17 straight matches this season.
Hazleton Area, one of only three teams to win a set off the Lady Warriors this season, had its season interrupted, playing just once in 27 days. It returned to win matches on the last four days of the regular season and has now won five straight to improve to 7-4.
Blue Ridge, the Lackawanna League Division 2 champion, brings a streak of seven straight district titles into the Class A championship match with Mountain View. It will be played a half hour after the completion of the Class 4A final.
The Lady Raiders swept the Lady Eagles in three sets in both their league meetings this season.
Wyoming Seminary was won four straight Class A field hockey titles going into its latest meeting with Wyoming Area, the team it beat in the last three championship games. After winning 3-2 in 2018 and 2-0 in 2019, Wyoming Seminary won last year’s final, 1-0, in overtime.
The Blue Knights are also three-time defending state champions.
Wyoming Area has lost just five times in the last three seasons, all to state finalists. They fell to Wyoming Seminary four times, in addition to tying the Blue Knights in a 2019 regular-season meeting, and to Oley Valley in the 2019 state semifinal.
The maxfieldhockey.com state rankings list all teams together, rather than breaking teams down by class, but they have Wyoming Seminary and Wyoming Area as the top two teams in the state among Class A schools.
The teams likely were the top two in the state last season when the PIAA state tournament was district champions only as a concession to COVID.
Wyoming Area took Wyoming Seminary into overtime scoreless twice last season before the Blue Knights completed their unbeaten season with 4-0, 6-0 and 3-0 wins in the state tournament.
This year’s first meeting was not as close as other recent meetings with Wyoming Seminary winning, 4-0, in a game that ultimately decided the Wyoming Valley Conference Division 1 championship.
Since then, Wyoming Area has posted 12 straight shutout victories.
The schedule of boys soccer semifinals gets started with Old Forge playing top-seed and Lackawanna Division 2 champion Holy Cross at 2:30 at Schautz Stadium in Dunmore.
Mountain View is at Lackawanna Division 3 champion Blue Ridge in the other Class A semifinal at 3:30.
WVC Division 2 champion Wyoming Area, the top seed, hosts Holy Redeemer in Class 2A in the other 3:30 game.
The rest of the games are at night.
Wyoming Seminary is at Dunmore at 6 in the other Class 2A game.
Abington Heights is at top-seeded North Pocono and Wallenpaupack is at four-time defending champion Crestwood in Class 3A games at 6.
The Class 4A tournament is a District 2-4 Subregional where Williamsport from District 4 is the defending champion. The Millionaires host Wilkes-Barre Area at 6.
Delaware Valley was the District 2 champion a year ago. It plays at top-seeded Hazleton Area at 6:30.
