"Regular season" winners have edge in Tourney
Teams that did well during the regular season start the Varsity Championship Tournament with an advantage, according to an explanation of the somewhat complex tournament scoring rules recently put out by the League.
A team that, for instance, finished in first place in the regular season starts the Tournament with points already credited to it equal to the points it would receive for a game won in the tournament. Teams that finished second and third also will start the Tournament with points already on the scoreboard in their favor.
The idea is to reward teams for doing well during the regular season, while at the same time allowing other teams a chance to reach the championship round.
The scoring for soccer and volleyball is slightly different.
To understand how this system works it may help to start with an explanation of how points are awarded in the tournament. In soccer, a team gets three points for winning a game, none for a loss during the opening "round robin" phase on Thursday and Friday during which in which each team plays every other team. The two teams with the best records, including points for the regular season finish, then meet in the championship round on Saturday. The other two teams play the "consolation" game for third place.
Ties are handled the same as during the regular season during the round robin. There is a five-shot penalty shoot-out in the event of a tie. The winner of the shootout gets two points; the loser gets one. If the championship game is a tie at the end of regulation time, a ten-minute sudden death overtime period will be played. If the score is still tied, there will be a penalty shot shootout.
In addition to points garnered for wins in the tournament, the team that finished first during the regular season starts out with three points in its favor in the standings even before the first tournament game is played. The team that finished second has two points, and the team that finished third has one.
The fourth-place finisher has no points to start with, but could still qualify for the finals in the tournament. To do so it would probably have to win all three of its games in the "round robin" phase of the tournament, though because of the way ties are scored the fourth-place team could conceivably also get to the finals and have a chance to win the championship with two wins and a tie, or even two wins and a loss.
In volleyball, two points are awarded in the tournament for a win. and one for a loss. (No points are awarded to a team that forfeits.)
As in soccer, in addition to points earned in the tournament, the team that "won" the regular season starts with two points to its credit, and the team that finished second has one point. The teams that finished third and fourth get no points.
Once again in volleyball, the teams that did well during the regular season are rewarded, but any team can make the finals and win the championship.
