Tawa’s HS Dots: Breakdown, predictions Durango Fall Classic grabs spotlight

This is “Dots,” VolleyballMag.com’s weekly look at 10 things in high school volleyball, past or present, that interest me and hopefully will interest you. Look for Dots every week until the last high school state championship in November:

• It’s finally here! The 64-team Durango Fall Classic convenes in Las Vegas starting Friday afternoon. Annually, “Durango” assembles the finest field of any high school tournament in the country and this year is no different.

At least nine teams in the field are ranked among the top 20 nationally on various lists. They include national No. 1 Mira Costa, the top overall seed; No. 2 Cornerstone Christian, which is seeded second; Mater Dei, the third seed; Cathedral Catholic, the 4-seed; Prestonwood Christian, the fifth seed; sixth-seeded Assumption; Archbishop Mitty, the seventh seed; eighth-seeded Huntington Beach and Sierra Canyon, the tenth seed. This is truly an elite field.

• Once again this year, I took on the challenge of seeding Durango. And it was a challenge, not only because I needed to assess the relative strengths of every team in the field, but also because at the DFC we always strive to create “balance.” What I mean by that is we try to keep common opponents away from each other in the Day 1 pools and qualifying rounds, all the day down to the 64th team; and we try to create interesting and unique matchups in the eight-team Championship Bracket, should seeds hold.

This means that you won’t find true seed order on any of the seed lines. Teams are routinely moved a few spots up or down to create this balance.

For instance, Cathedral Catholic should probably be the No. 3 overall seed over Mater Dei, because of a more recent win. But Mater Dei has already played fifth-seeded Prestonwood (finals at Volleypalooza). By moving Mater Dei to No. 3 overall, the Monarchs now will match up against Assumption in the quarterfinals (if seeds hold) and Cathedral will take on Prestonwood, both unique match ups this year.

• The past two seasons, not only has the No. 1 overall seed won Durango, the DFC champion has turned in an undefeated season that netted Marymount (2021) and Cathedral Catholic (2022) both state and consensus national championships.

That precise scenario cannot repeat again this year, because the top six seeds have all lost at least once. But there are undefeated teams in the field that could run the table here at Durango and then back home in their respective…