The CIF-SS released the 16 teams selected to the girls Open Division of the playoffs on Friday afternoon and five Orange County teams earned bids to the section’s elite bracket.
Brea Olinda, Fairmont Prep, Mater Dei, Orangewood Academy and Troy were the five squads chosen to compete in the 16-team bracket, which will release its official seedings and matchups on Saturday.
Mater Dei will be making its fourth consecutive appearance in the Open Division, qualifying every year since the division’s inception in the 2013-14 season. Troy and Brea Olinda will each be making its third appearance. This will be Fairmont Prep’s second straight trip, while San Joaquin League co-champ Orangewood Academy will be making its debut.
With five teams selected, this will be the most local squads represented in the Open Division.
No county team has ever won the Open Division title. Mater Dei finished as the runner-up twice, in 2014 and 2015.
The other teams in the Open Division: Alemany of Mission Hills, Chaminade of West Hills, Etiwanda, Harvard-Westlake of Studio City, Lakeside of Lake Elsinore, Long Beach Millikan, Long Beach Poly, Serra of Gardena, Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth, Ventura and Windward of Los Angeles.
Fairmont Prep and Orangewood Academy – ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in this week’s CIF-SS poll – were the only teams outside of Division 1AA to be selected.
“We figured we were going to be in,” Orangewood coach Leslie Aragon explained. “What the committee bases it heavily on is how good you’re playing right now. Ever since the Christmas break, we’ve shown up to every game and haven’t laid an egg. We’ve only lost three games (since the start of January). We beat Fairmont last week after losing to them at their place, and the other two losses were against likely top-four seeds in the Open (Sierra Canyon and Windward).”
First-round games are next Saturday, Feb. 18 at the designated host sites. Second-round play is Feb. 22, and semifinals are Feb. 25.
The Open Division championship game will be played at the Honda Center on March 4.
Losers of first-round games will continue playing in the division’s consolation bracket.
Chaminade is the two-time defending champ, but the Eagles were the third-place finisher in the loaded Mission League, which sent a section-high three schools to the Open Division. Alemany and Harvard-Westlake were also selected.
Three leagues sent a pair of teams into the bracket. The Moore League saw Long Beach Poly and Millikan earn bids. Windward of Los Angeles and Sierra Canyon of Chatsworth represent the Gold Coast League, while Fairmont Prep and Orangewood Academy make it a pair of squads from the San Joaquin League.
Contact the writer: kconnolly@scng.com
