By Andy Walter

Second-seeded Delmarva Christian will have to make a 173-mile round trip to face No. 3 St. Mark’s on its home court in the DIAA girls’ volleyball state semifinals on Thursday night.

The contest is slated to start at 6 p.m. with fifth-seeded Caravel taking on No. 9 Tower Hill in the second semifinal.

St. Mark’s will be playing on its home court in the semis for the fifth time in the last six seasons after the DIAA decided to make the Pike Creek school the traditional host of the state Final Four.

But the site choice is an apparent contradiction in the philosophy that the DIAA used in not allowing three downstate teams to play their quarterfinal matches in Kent County on Tuesday. The matches had been briefly moved to Smyrna, which was the No. 1 seed.

“We were attempting to be accommodating and mindful of teams from the southern part of the state travelling north and playing late on a school night,” DIAA executive director Donna Polk said in a press release. “Upon the decision and change, the traditional neutral host-site location was lost — we felt it was important to restore that tradition for all participating programs.”

When asked why that neutral-site mandate did not still apply to the semifinals, the DIAA — through spokesperson Allison May — said that it was simply sticking to its original plan, with St. Mark’s as the site.

The tradition of St. Mark’s hosting the volleyball semifinals dates to a time when the Catholic school had one of the biggest gyms in the state and downstate programs barely advanced past the first round of the tournament.

But that is no longer the case, with several schools around the state having big gyms and Smyrna and Delmarva Christian earning the top two seeds in this year’s tournament.

In its tournament manual for volleyball, the DIAA says that "All tournament sites will be determined by the Volleyball Committee based on availability, geographic location, seating capacity, parking facilities, gymnasium condition, and the seeding of teams. "

The DIAA volleyball committee, however, still insisted on sending Delmarva Christian and Caesar Rodney to Wilmington (St. Elizabeth) for their quarterfinal match on Tuesday. Despite being the No. 1 seed, Smyrna played No. 9 Tower Hill at St. Mark’s in its quarterfinal match.

“If the tradition of neutral host sites is really important, the winner of our game with CR won’t be sent to play them in their home gym,” Delmarva Christian athletic director Keith Stonebraker said before the quarterfinals.

Delmarva Christian is only the second downstate school and the first from Sussex County to reach the state semifinals in girls’ volleyball.

The state finals are set for the Carpenter Center in Newark on Monday night. Since the tourney has a third-place match held before the finals, the Royals will get to make that trip no matter what happens on Thursday night.

Sports editor Andy Walter can be reached at walter@iniusa.org.