San Marcos’ girls water polo received the No. 4 seed in Division 1 when CIF brackets were released today.
Channel League co-champion San Marcos received the No. 4 seed when the CIF-SS Division 1 girls water polo playoff pairings were announced Sunday.
The Royals, enjoying their best season in Division 1 with a 20-8 record, and co-league champion Santa Barbara (18-9) will be home for Wednesday’s first round of the playoffs. Dos Pueblos (10-15), the Channel League’s No. 3 team, will travel to Newport Harbor for the first round.
San Marcos faces Villa Park (14-14), the No. 3 team from the Century League, at 3:30 p.m. The Royals enter the postseason after beating Santa Barbara, 13-12, in overtime last Thursday to earn a share of the league title.
“There were some games in the last week whose outcomes really shook up the seedings,” San Marcos coach Chuckie Roth said. “I think we have luck to thank since it was decided by a coin flip. I am very happy with our draw.”
On his draw, Roth said, “Villa Park has some players that we will have to watch out for, while (possible quarterfinal opponent) Los Alamitos is perhaps one of the best coached and most disciplined teams. We will take it one quarter at a time and do what we need to do to win games. Regardless of the parings, I just like our chances. I have a group of girls who believe and want to win. This is a great group of girls.”
Santa Barbara opens the playoffs against Saddleback (17-9), the No. 2 team from the Orange Coast League. Game time is 3:15 p.m.
Laguna Beach (25-1) is the top-seeded team in the Division 1 bracket while Foothill (21-5) is second and Corona del Mar (23-4) third.
In Division 6, Cate plays host to Palm Springs in a wild-card game on Tuesday. The Rams (11-2) finished second in the Tri-Valley League. The wild-card winner plays at No. 1 seed Yorba Linda on Thursday.
The quarterfinals will be played on Saturday, Feb. 21 at home sites and the semifinals are Wednesday, Feb. 26 at the Woollett Aquatics Center in Irvine for Division 1. The Woollett Center will host all finals on Saturday, March. 1.
