In a strange twist of fate, Bay League boys volleyball champion Mira Costa begins the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 playoff as the top seeded team.
Although Mira Costa finished the regular season last Thursday with a loss, the Mustang’s performance in a 21-15, 25-21, 25-22, 19-25, 17-15 loss to No. 1 Huntington Beach jumped Mira Costa into the No. 2 spot in the CIF-SS Division rankings.
Because Huntington Beach (26-1) placed second in the Sunset League after its only loss of the season coming to champion Newport Harbor (21-6), the team could not be seeded ahead of the league champion.
The situation moved Mira Costa (22-5) into the top-seeded position followed by Loyola (23-2) at No. 2 then Newport Harbor and Huntington Beach.
Mira Costa opens the postseason with a home match against Northwood (13-11-1) today. All matches with the exception of the finals are slated to begin at 7 p.m.
“This is the deepest playoff pool that I’ve seen, from the round of 16 forward it’s going to be a very good challenge for us and everyone else,” Mira Costa coach Sean Shoptaw said. “We’ll be hyper-focused on each match and won’t get ahead of ourselves with what lies ahead beyond Tuesday and Thursday. I really like this team and feel good about where we are, but we’ve got to keep improving and be ready to grind out matches.”
Bay League runner-up Palos Verdes (24-7) finished ranked No. 6 in Division 1 and will host Thousand Oaks (17-15) in the first round.
Redondo (20-12) plays at Santa Barbara (17-10) and Peninsula (14-14), who earned at at-large berth, will play at Loyola.
In Division 2, Pioneer League champion South Torrance (23-9) is ranked No. 7 and hosts Crescenta Valley (17-15). Torrance (17-12) plays at Valencia/Valencia (16-19) and West Torrance (14-16) travels to La Canada (17-2).
El Segundo (17-2) earned the fourth seed in Division 3 and will host Schurr (10-6) in Tuesday’s opening round.
Coastal champion Vistamar (17-4) hosts wild-card winner Holy Martyrs (16-10) in a 6 p.m. to be played at Dana Middle School.
Brackets and results are available at ciffss.org.
