EudoraNews.com

The journalism saying of longstanding states, "No cheering in the pressbox." We would assume that means no jeering too. Still, we'll risk accusations of being homers to jeer the handling of the Eudora High School volleyball team Friday at the state 4A championship in Salina.

At the tournament, eight teams were divided into two pools with four teams each. The teams in each pool played a round-robin series of matches with the top-two teams moving on to the championship round.

Obviously, there is a risk in such an arrangement that three teams could all end up with identical records. That is exactly what happened Friday and led to a confusing situation that had the Eudora girls first posted to move on to the championship round and then removed for another team.

It's not the intend to criticize the decision of tournament officials -- although a cursory, non-professional glance at the rules suggests they erred -- but the complexity of regulations that caused officials to huddle for hours before making a determination. The three-team tie was a predictable consequence of pool play and should be clearly addressed in Kansas State High School Activities Assn. regulations. For lack of such clarity, the Eudora team left the gym assuming they earned the right to move on, cruelly learning hours later that another team was now on the board in its place.

The Eudora girls' fate might not be as earthshaking as the decision made in Tuesday's election, but it is safe to assume there have been few things in their young lives as important to them. They deserved a ruling they could understand as logical. Teenagers shouldn't have to be lawyers to understand the outcome of sporting events or the importance of the next match.

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