Nyah Yao (above) and Radnor are the No. 2 seed in state. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)
By CoBL Staff
The District 1 5A girls’ bracket continues Tuesday night with the quarterfinals, four games that also serve as PIAA state qualifiers. Seven of the eight remaining teams will end up in the PIAA tournament: the four who win tomorrow night and three of the four who end up in the playback brackets, so everybody left in the field has at least three games remaining in the season.
With last year’s winner, Bishop Shanahan, out of the picture, there’s going to be a new champion this year, and it’s a field that seems wide-open going into the quarterfinals — at least, after one squad whose regular season went quite a bit better than anybody else’s.
Here’s a look at all four games:
1) Gwynedd Mercy vs. 9) Marple Newtown (6:00 PM)
The Monarchs finished the season 19-2, far and away the top team in the District 1 5A formula rankings, first-year head coach Taylor Sweeney’s group sweeping the AACA regular season. A loss to Villa Maria in the AACA championship game showed that GMA (20-3) is beatable, but aside from three games against Villa Maria, they don’t have any other regular-season games against 5A opponents.