Huntington Beach vs. Mater Dei a first-round standout

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Volleyball notes: The playoff pairings bring together two top 10 teams for an exciting clash.

Look at the boys volleyball CIF-SS Division-I playoff pairings released Monday and one match sticks out: Huntington Beach vs. Mater Dei.

The Oilers and Monarchs, top-10 county teams for most of the season, will meet in a first-round match at Mater Dei on Friday. But what is exciting to some is not for others.

“I don't think the draw was particularly good,” Huntington Beach coach Rocky Ciarelli said. “I don't understand how (CIF) came up with what they came up with. Mater Dei, it's not fair to them either.”

Mater Dei coach Darrick Lucero added: “I think (teams) should be (seeded) 1-32, regardless of where the teams are located. The kids work extremely hard all year long and deserve to get a fair draw.”

CIF-SS Assistant Commissioner Scott Raftery reminded everyone that the CIF is working under the rules set by league officials.

“One-through-32 would be really easy for us,” Raftery said, “but the voting membership has given us these guidelines.”

Those guidelines include putting each league's top two seeds on opposite sides of the bracket and seeding only the top four ranked teams from the final CIF poll. From there, CIF shapes the brackets based on team success and strength of schedule, Raftery said.

Newport Harbor earned Division I's top seed, followed by No. 2 Mira Costa, No. 3 Loyola and No. 4 Santa Margarita. Corona del Mar (Division II No. 3) and Sage Hill (Division V No. 3) were the other county teams seeded.

Contact the writer: amaya@ocregister.com