Kankakee Valley hasn't lost a Northwest Crossroads Conference game since beginning the second half of league volleyball.
That includes a five-game win against Andrean, which is tied with the Kougars for the No. 2 spot in the NCC.
The 59ers and Kougars got a chance to settle their score when the IHSAA announced its postseason draw Monday morning. They'll play each other in the first round of the Knox Sectional.
"They beat us at our place and we beat them at their place," K.V. coach Rick Ashmore said. "Then they played at the K.V. Invite and gave Mishawaka Marian all it could handle, and they're a solid team, but so are we. It's about which team steps up that day."
Four of the six teams in the Knox sectional have 10 losses or fewer and three are on the same side of the bracket.
Andrean (33-7) will play the winner of the Knox (21-9) vs. Rensselaer (3-19) game that follows on Oct. 16. Hanover Central (23-4) plays Calumet in the second semifinal on Oct. 20.
"I'm wondering if there's a better way to do this than out of a hat," Andrean coach Julie Wiejak said. "To think of Knox or us or KV and only one of those teams gets to play in the final? Some sort of power ranking might make it a little bit more fair."
Defending regional champion Munster drew a bye and plays its first game of the Lowell Sectional at 10 a.m. Oct. 20. The host Red Devils will play West Side in the first game of the tournament on Oct. 16 and Lake Central, which played the Mustangs for the championship in 2011, are on a path to meet Munster again if both teams win semifinal matches. The Indians open against Highland on Oct. 18.
Whiting, in its second year in Class 2A, battled Wheeler last year for the sectional title. The Oilers drew a first-round bye and will play host River Forest in the second semifinal match on Oct. 20. The bracket is aligned so the Bearcats meet the Oilers again.
Wheeler beat Whiting twice in the regular season: in four games in Greater South Shore Conference play and in two games in the Griffith tournament.
Washington Township, Wheeler, Munster and Andrean enter the postseason as the defending regional champions.
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