Three things to watch for Saturday at 10 a.m. with the release of the girls water polo playoff pairings:
At-large entries: At-large berths to the postseason are expected to be scarce.
Southern Section spokesman Thom Simmons said Friday that the section anticipates at-large berths only in Division 7. The brackets for the other divisions are expected to be full, he said.
That is positive news for Saddleback, the fourth-place team from the Orange Coast League, home to Division 1 juggernaut and undefeated Laguna Beach (27-0).
The Roadrunners, featuring county-leading scorer Aisley Martinez, are 13-13 overall.
The lack of at-large berths is likely troubling news for Sunny Hills (19-11) and Esperanza (15-14), a pair solid Division 4 teams from the competitive Freeway and Crestview leagues. Both schools are non-automatic qualifiers but applied for at-large berths.
Top seeds: Laguna Beach (Division 1) and under-the-radar Villa Park (Division 3) are candidates to earn No. 1 seeds.
The Breakers captured the so-called Triple Crown of regular season tournaments. They feature Olympic gold medalist Aria Fischer, who signed with Stanford.
Villa Park finished second to Division 1 Foothill in the Crestview but is grouped in Division 3 for the first time. Villa Park is led by a senior foursome of goalie Morgan Stiewig, Bri Portales, Victoria Vega and Lindsy Peterson.
Tough Division 1: All 17 teams in Division 1 are automatic qualifiers so third-place teams Santa Margarita, Huntington Beach and Santa Barbara appear to be candidates for wild-card matches. There also are 10 league champions in Division 1, so it seems likely that some first-place teams will be on the road in the first round.
That’s one of the wrinkles to the new competitive equity playoff model.
Contact the writer: dalbano@scng.com
