Santa Margarita Has Easy Time

So much for the Southern Section’s new regionalized playoff system creating more competitive tennis matches.

Quarterfinals of the Division III girls’ playoffs: Santa Margarita 18, Brea Olinda 0.

The section based the new format on each school’s enrollment size and proximity to other schools. In theory, the new system sounds equitable. But in practice, it has fostered some very lopsided matches.

Brea Olinda breezed through the Orange League without losing a match and came into’s Tuesday’s match 20-1. But Brea was playing fourth-seeded Santa Margarita, a school that competed in Division I until this year and plays in the Sea View League, the section’s most competitive.

Brea Olinda Coach Bob Walton, in his first year at Brea after leading Laguna Beach to three Division II titles, said he saw the rout coming.

“We were really just happy to be here,” Walton said. “Rim [of the World] was more our level. It’s really neat for our kids to see a different level of tennis. I just wish we could have gotten a set or two. They just hit the ball so much harder than us and they’re so much deeper.”

Santa Margarita Coach Brian Scanlan decried the seeding formula.

“In Division III, the first and fourth seeds [Woodbridge and Brea] have not had any competition while the Nos. 1 and 3 seeds [Westlake Village Westlake and North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake] have struggled,” he said. “I’m not wishing for the old format. I’m just looking for better pairings for this format.”

Santa Margarita, which finished fourth in the Sea View, was never extended past a 6-4 set and won seven of 18 sets, 6-0. The Eagles’ three singles players, Ashley Jensen, Erin Miller and Katie Leatherby, lost five games each.

In Thursday’s semifinals, Santa Margarita will play Woodbridge, which won the Sea View League and has beaten the Eagles badly twice.

“I don’t know how you go from beating somebody 18-0 to playing Woodbridge in the semifinals,” Scanlan said. “I’m not in favor of proximity. I think there could be a better way to have parity in your quarterfinals. In my opinion, the semifinals are the finals. We’re going to treat it that way.”