The overall depth and quality of Orange County tennis was apparent Monday when the CIF-Southern Section released the playoff brackets for the girls team playoffs.
In all five divisional brackets, a county school earned one of the top four seeds.
The area’s perennial power, University (16-1), earned the second overall seed in Division 1 behind top-seeded Peninsula, the only team to defeat University during the regular season.
The Trojans’ road to the semifinals could go through two of the county’s top teams, No. 9 Villa Park (15-0) and No. 2 Los Alamitos (11-3).
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SCHEDULES: Playoff pairings for all of the divisions
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While the Griffins are ranked higher than Corona del Mar (15-5) in the county rankings, the Sea Kings were awarded the division’s No. 4 seed, thanks in large part to a 13-5 nonleague win over Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach in October.
Elsewhere in the county, Laguna Beach (16-4) earned the third seed in Division 2. Valencia (15-2) and Yorba Linda (14-6) – seeded second and third in Division 3 – could potentially meet for a spot in the finals next week. The Tigers beat the Mustangs, 11-7, in early September.
Garden Grove is the area’s best hope in Division 4, as the Argonauts (11-4) were given the third overall seed in the bracket.
The only school that was named its division’s top seed was Orange. The Panthers finished the regular season with a 16-1 record, which proved to be good enough for the top seed in Division 5.
“I’m in shock,” Orange coach Michael Wenkart said of receiving the No. 1 seed. “This school’s never gotten past the second round before in CIF. It would be great to win it, but like I told the girls, let’s just win two games first. After that, we’ll just go from there.”
The playoffs start with wild-card matches today. The first round is Friday, the quarterfinals are next Monday and the semifinals are Nov. 12. The finals for every division are Nov. 14 at The Claremont Club.
Contact the writer: kconnolly@ocregister.com
