Playoff Primer No. 3

WINCHESTER, Va. - As the VBL completes its final week of the regular season, the playoff field is 50 percent complete.

Eight of the league's 12 teams have just two games remaining in the regular season while Waynesboro and Rockbridge have three games left.

Staunton and Covington have to play four more times before completing the 44-game regular season on Friday.

Four of the eight playoff spots are clinched with Harrisonburg and Winchester also locking down the top two seeds.

Waynesboro, which leads the South, has clinched a playoff berth while New Market is also in as the Central runner-up.

The South Division champion will be the No. 3 seed.

New Market is currently the leader for the No. 4 seed and homefield advantage for the first round, but leads Staunton by just one game for this spot and the Braves have two games in hand to the Rebels.

Strasburg is the only team mathematically eliminated, although Luray must win out and hope that neither Covington nor Woodstock wins any of their remaining contests. The Wranglers are eliminated with either a loss or a win from the Lumberjacks or River Bandits.

The playoffs will start the next day following the completion of the regular season. As of today, game one in the quarterfinal round will be played on Saturday.

If the playoffs started today (Clinched seeds in BOLD). * means clinched playoff berth, but not seed.

1. Harrisonburg vs No. 8 Front Royal

2. Winchester vs No. 7 Covington

3. Waynesboro* vs No. 6 Rockbridge

4. New Market* vs No. 5 Staunton

The quarterfinal and semi-final rounds will be best-of-three with the championship round a best-of-five. In all cases, the higher seed will hold homefield advantage.