Crescenta Valley leads sprint into CIF girls’ water polo postseason
Ricky Mulcahey and his Crescenta Valley High girls’ water polo team will open the playoffs on Thursday.
Three local girls’ water polo programs earned bids to the CIF Southern Section playoffs, which begin Tuesday afternoon.
Pacific League champion Crescenta Valley, third-place finisher Glendale and Mission League fourth-place qualifier Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy were all awarded spots when the section office released the postseason pairings on Saturday.
The Falcons and Nitros will take part in the Division IV first round on Thursday afternoon, while the Tologs start early on Tuesday in a Division III wild-card game.
Crescenta Valley enters the postseason with a 25-4 record and is fresh off winning a seventh consecutive Pacific League title after dispatching of Burroughs, 18-8, in the league tournament championship game Thursday at Burbank High.
“I’ve been harping on my girls all season long about the level of our play,” Crescenta Valley Coach Ricky Mulcahey said. “We do play in a weaker league, unfortunately, but that should be no excuse.
“That’s what I was proud of at the Pacific League finals. The girls were determined and didn’t stoop to the level of our competition.”
Crescenta Valley is seeded fourth and will open against Inland Valley League runner-up Arlington (16-9) on Thursday. That much is assured.
While the CIF has designated a 5 p.m. start time, Mulcahey said Arlington officials have already contacted him to ask that the time be moved to 3:15 p.m. Aside from the start, Mulcahey is also looking to secure Pasadena City College or Burbank High for the home pool.
Should Crescenta Valley win, then it would advance to Saturday’s quarterfinals against either Palomares League co-champion Ayala (18-6) or San Gabriel Valley League No. 3 Cerritos (6-22).
Last season, the Falcons opened with a 9-8 win against Warren in the first round before falling in the quarterfinals, 10-5, to Riverside Poly.
Speaking of Riverside Poly, that’s where the Nitros (12-15) will be heading for their first-round match-up.
The game time is tentatively listed at 5 p.m., although Glendale Coach Casey Sripramong said she would attempt to move up the contest start time due to the commute.
“I would prefer to go earlier,” Sripramong said, “and we’ll see if we can get that done.”
While Glendale’s record isn’t great that could be due to the Nitros bulking up the nonleague portion of their schedule with 11 playoff teams.
Glendale will need that experience against second-seeded Poly (19-9), the Inland Valley League champion and last season’s Division IV runner-up.
“I don’t know anything about this year’s Poly team,” Sripramong said. “Historically, though, they have a very strong program and I’m expecting a very tough game.”
A Nitros’ upset victory would qualify the squad to Saturday’s quarterfinals against Warren (10-3), Capistrano Valley (3-6) or Claremont (19-10).
As for Flintridge Sacred Heart, the Mission League fourth-place Tologs (18-10) began preparations for one team Saturday morning and then another in the afternoon.
When the original pairings were released, Flintridge Sacred Heart was scheduled for a roughly 384-mile round trip to face PAC-8 League third seed San Luis Obispo (17-9). Those plans changed around 12:30 p.m. when the Southern Section office made several amendments to the pairings, including switching the Tologs’ opponent to Pac-8 League No. 2 Righetti (13-6), which saved the team about 80 miles.
The contest is currently slated for 5 p.m., although Tologs Coach Carlos Ponce said he would try to move up the start time due to the commute.
Should Flintridge Sacred Heart win, which would be the program’s first postseason victory, the Tologs would then travel to face Bay League champion Mira Costa (17-13) on Wednesday.
