Volleyball Tournament

Question
Hello, I am a high school volleyball coach and my we are hosting a 10 team tournament at our school The Varsity tournament has 10 teams and the JV tournament has 10 teams. My question was what is the best format for a 10 team tournament? We were thinking of doing 2 pools of 5. In pool play they would play best of three is that good? Then the top three advance to playoffs. There would be a reseed with the top 2 teams getting a bye then 3 vs. 6 and 4 vs 5. In quarterfinals and semifinals how many games should they play? One game to 25 or best of 3. The finals then would be best of 3. We were also thinking of doing the quaterfinals and semifinals of the JV tournament as 1 game to 25. That way that would keep that tournament moving. Please e-mail me back with your thoughts and suggestions. Thanks for the help.

Answer
That definitely sounds like it would be a good system.  However, I think I would start with one games of 25 and then as they get higher in the tournament switch to best of 3.

But, if you want an alternative idea, another way would be to have a first-round (call it qualifying round) to be round-robin, with each team playing every other team for one game to 25.  With this method, you will have 100 games played versus the 150 games you would have with round-robin play using 5 teams in each pool of best of 3 games.

With the lower amount of games early on, you also get a chance for each team to play every single other team.  This will give great experience for both the JV and Varsity teams.

Then take the top six teams from the qualifying round and put them into a standard bracket with each round being best of 3.  I see three options for choosing the top six teams:

1. The best win-loss record; with ties going to highest points scored.
2. Overall points scored with ties going to win-loss record.
3. Use best win-loss record; but bring a seventh team (wild card) based only on overall scored points.

Things to remember is that during the qualifying round, you may have to do a play-off match to 15 to break the ties.

I think overall, you will see a smaller number of games played, which will keep it moving along, but at the same time, much more diversity of play.

Good luck and let me know how it goes.