Field hockey and girls volleyball brackets were released for the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association state tournaments on Wednesday, but not without some changes after Hampden County Superior Court Judge Tracy E. Duncan upheld her injunction from earlier in the week brought forth by the Hampden-Wilbraham Regional School District and individuals from Monson High School regarding sectional tournament contests being ruled as forfeits.

After the MIAA argued against the temporary injunction on Tuesday, the ruling was upheld by the court on Wednesday, and brackets were released with the Minnechaug field hockey and girls volleyball teams assuming their actual records instead of the forfeitures from the Western Mass. tournaments that had been agreed upon earlier this fall by the PVIAC and the MIAA. Monson doesn’t field either sport, but its soccer teams will also have their records reinstated prior to those brackets being released on Friday.

“We will abide by the court order and seed the field hockey and volleyball tournaments based on the decision by the Hampden County Superior Court,” the MIAA said in a statement to MassLive.

As a result, Northampton Public Schools filed its own emergency motion for a temporary restraining order or preliminary injunction on Wednesday in Hampshire County Superior Court. The district will go before Judge James M. Manitsas on Thursday at 11:30 a.m. seeking the same ruling garnered by Minnechaug and Monson in respect to the Blue Devil soccer programs. Northampton is represented by Elizabeth Zuckerman from the Springfield law office of Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas, which also represented Minnechaug and Monson in its case.

Northampton was among the more than a dozen western Massachusetts schools whose athletic directors did not input their schedules correctly to the online portal, Arbiter, used across the Commonwealth by the MIAA for ranking its teams in state tournaments. Schools were required to have full schedules — including “TBA” (to be announced) games to serve as placeholders for the Western Mass. tournament — on their schedule by Sept. 13. The PVIAC and MIAA agreed that schools would still be able to play those two TBA games, but the non-abiding schools would be given a forfeit loss despite the outcome of the game in regard to state tournament rankings. Northampton doesn’t have a girls volleyball team, and its field hockey didn’t qualify for the state tournament, but with soccer brackets scheduled for release on Friday, time to be seen before a judge was running thin.

The motion filed Wednesday by Northampton Public Schools calls the MIAA’s decision to count games as forfeits as “arbitrary and capricious.”

“The Students were not responsible for the non-conforming submissions to the MIAA, nor could they have submitted conforming submissions,” the motion reads. “However, under the MIAA’s stated approach, the Students and their Teams will pay the price for this inadvertent error.”

After learning of the error, Northampton AD David Proulx attempted to correct the scheduling submission to conform with the MIAA’s position, according to the motion, but the organization refused to accept the revised submission.

The MIAA did not respond when asked for comment.

In Franklin County, Mohawk Trail Regional and Pioneer Valley Regional both suffered forfeit losses in the Western Mass. tournaments despite actually winning games due to the MIAA and PVIAC’s agreement.

Mohawk Trail AD Greg Lilly said the school didn’t have plans to follow Minnechaug, Monson and Northampton’s leads in court, but the school’s lone state tournament qualifier, girls volleyball, was impacted due to the two forfeit losses. The Warriors won the Class D championship, winning both of their “TBA” matches, but while their record for state tournament consideration could have been 15-1, the MIAA ranked them using a 13-3 record. As a result, Mohawk Trail earned the No. 18 seed when the Div. 5 volleyball brackets were released on Wednesday, and will travel to No. 15 Turners Falls for a fourth meeting this season on Saturday in the Round of 32.

Pioneer’s boys soccer team beat Smith Academy on Tuesday night to earn a spot in the Class D championship game. If things stand however, the Panthers would suffer two forfeit losses to replace their quarterfinal and semifinal wins, negatively impacting their seed for the Div. 5 state tournament.

Hopkins Academy, which had its girls soccer team qualify for the state tournament, is the other Hampshire County high school in the same predicament as Northampton, though Hadley Public Schools were not named in the complaint.

Local teams in the field

As for the brackets themselves, several Franklin County schools found out their seeds and opponents for the upcoming MIAA tournaments on Wednesday.

Frontier led the way in the Div. 4 field hockey brackets, as the Redhawks drew the No. 4 seed and will open its state tourney with a Round of 32 game against No. 29 Franklin Tech on Friday at 2:30 p.m. in South Deerfield.

Greenfield is also in the Div. 4 field as the No. 17 seed, and the Green Wave will travel to play at No. 16 Clinton on Friday at 4:30 p.m.

Frontier also led the way in the Div. 4 girls volleyball bracket, as the Redhawks are the No. 6 seed and will host No. 27 Ayer Shirley in the Round of 32 on Friday at 5:30 p.m.

In Div. 5, Turners Falls is the No. 15 seed and will host No. 18 Mohawk Trail on Saturday. No. 34 Mahar will travel to No. 31 Georgetown for a prelim match on Friday, while No. 37 Greenfield is set to play at No. 28 Keefe Tech in a prelim on Thursday at 4 p.m.