Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com – St. Bernard’s Mackenzie Finck in action at a recent match at McKinleyville.

Arcata and McKinleyville high schools will feature a lot of volleyball on Saturday.

A total of 16 teams will be on hand for the Arcata Invitational Volleyball Tournament, including seven local squads.

The tournament, which features three Big 5 teams, will be played out with four pools of four teams playing three games each.

The top two teams in each bracket will then advance to the championship round, with the third- and fourth-placed teams advancing to Gold and Silver playoff brackets.

And that guarantees plenty of game time for everyone involved, which is exactly what most teams are looking for at this stage of the season as they try to build momentum heading towards league play.

In addition to Arcata, which comes into the tournament with an impressive record of 9-3, the tournament will also feature McKinleyville which improved to 7-2 on Thursday night with a straight sets win over Brookings-Harbor. 

The Fortuna Huskies, who are 1-4, according to MaxPreps, will also be on hand, as well as Little 7 teams Hoopa, St. Bernard’s and Ferndale.

The Arcata JVs round out the local contingent, playing in Pool D along with Central Valley, Clear Lake and Ferndale.

The action gets under way at 8:30 a.m., 

Championship round games will be played at Arcata High, while the Gold and Silver brackets will be played at McKinleyville High.

###

Ray Hamill writes at humboldtsports.com, where you can read lots more about sports in Humboldt County.