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Associate mug of Kenny Connolly, Anaheim reporter.

Date shot: 12/31/2012 . Photo by KATE LUCAS /  ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
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There was no shortage of question marks, especially in the case of Beckman girls tennis team, when the CIF-SS tennis pairings were released Monday.

The Patriots (12-7, 4-6) play in the Pacific Coast League – considered to be the girls tennis equivalent of the Trinity League in football – and were ranked No. 1 in Division 2 for the last three weeks of the regular season.

Coach Nick Friendt said his team was shocked to find out that, despite the new competitive equity system, the Patriots were left out of the Division 2 bracket because they failed to finish in the top three of their league standings.

“I just don’t get it,” a perplexed Friendt said. “Literally, competitive equity doesn’t mean anything. We could’ve played the toughest nonleague schedule against Mira Costa, Peninsula, Dana Hill, Campbell Hall and go 10-0 or 0-10 in nonleague. Competitive equity doesn’t mean anything if you’re taking the top-three teams in league and moving them onto CIF.”

CIF-SS girls tennis playoff pairings 

Beckman finished fourth in league, with a 4-6 mark, behind Corona del Mar – the No. 1 overall seed in Division 1 – University and Northwood, who are ranked No. 2 and No. 5 in the county, respectively. All six of their league losses were to those teams.

The Patriots were 12-7 overall. They had wins against Fountain Valley and Foothill – the No. 2 overall seed in Division 2. Their only other loss came against Mater Dei, which shared the Trinity League title.

The Patriots wondered, Friendt said, if they were punished for playing in a league as strong as the Pacific Coast League.

“The polls do not determine playoff entry,” CIF-SS Assistant Commissioner Rainer Wulf said in an email. “League placement determines playoff entry. In a six-team league, only three automatic entries are guaranteed a playoff spot and any other ‘at-large’ entries may only be placed in a bracket if there are less than 32 automatic qualifiers. In D2 this year there were 36 automatic qualifiers, so there was no room for any at-large teams to be considered or included.”

Wulf went on to add that nowhere in the CIF-SS Council’s proposal was it ever intimated that more teams would get into the playoff bracket.

“At-large entries have never been guaranteed nor was that going to change in the new system,” he added in the email.

CIF-SS Director of Communications Thom Simmons also noted in an email that, “Not only are at-large teams not guaranteed entry, they never have been including under the system that was in place last year.” Under that logic, the Patriots would not have gotten into the playoffs in the old sytem either.   

Beckman has made the postseason once since the school opened back in 2004.

Friendt said the school’s booster club had made plans to have CIF playoff shirts made for the team with every individual’s name printed on the back. Instead, he spent Monday afternoon consoling a devastated squad when he broke the news to the players at practice.

“We would’ve liked to have been in that final four and seen where the chips fell from there,” Friendt said. “Now we just feel like the rackets have been taken out of our kids’ hands.”

The wild-card round for all divisions will be played Tuesday afternoon, with the first round on Wednesday and the second round on Friday.

Quarterfinals will be played Nov. 7, semifinals on Nov. 9 and the finals take place Nov. 11 at the Claremont Club.

Contact the writer: kconnolly@scng.com