Spruce Creek, NSB, DeLand, Atlantic heading to FHSAA volleyball playoffs

Three local volleyball teams earned wild cards into the Florida High School Athletic Association playoffs Sunday, while District 3-3A runner-up Father Lopez had its bubble burst as postseason spots were decided by MaxPreps rankings for the first time.

Spruce Creek, DeLand and New Smyrna Beach were selected into their respective regional brackets. Atlantic, a district champion for the first time since 1996, is the only Volusia/Flagler program which will host a first-round game.

Seventh-seeded Spruce Creek (17-10) and No. 8 seed DeLand (16-6) cracked the highly competitive Region 1-8A field. Both programs will travel into Seminole County for matchups against top-10 ranked teams statewide, Longwood Lyman and Oviedo Hagerty.

New Smyrna Beach (15-11), a state semifinalist each of the past three years, opens its Region 1-6A journey on the road against Gainesville Buchholz. The seventh-seeded Barracudas faced Buchholz twice during the regular season and lost all six sets.

Class 7A and 6A playoff games are set for 7 p.m. Wednesday.

Making its first trip to the playoffs since 2012, and just the second in the last two decades, Atlantic (13-12) will welcome Orlando Bishop Moore to its gym at 7 p.m. Thursday. The Sharks stole a bid with back-to-back wins against Eustis and St. Augustine Menendez in the District 9-4A tournament.

Father Lopez was the lone area team whose legitimate playoff dreams were shattered Sunday. The Green Wave (16-9) fell to Ocala Trinity Catholic in the District 1-3A final, resulting in Jacksonville Providence leapfrogging them for the 8-seed.

"You can't really do anything about it," Father Lopez coach Larissa Maloney said. "Obviously, I'm not really happy with the new ranking system. Nothing against my girls, they worked hard all year and deserved that 8-seed. But that's how it fell this year, unfortunately."