New Alignments Add Interest

New divisional alignments added some intrigue and late-season upsets added more to the Southern Section girls’ soccer playoff pairings, released Monday at the Southern Section office in Cerritos.

It used to be that the Division I tournament was an almost all-Orange County affair, but that’s no longer the case because of the new divisional alignments, which group teams according to enrollment rather than by strength of league.

Defending Division I co-champion Los Alamitos (19-4-3) is seeded third in Division I, but Mission Viejo (16-5-4), the other defending Division I co-champion, is in Division II this season with the majority of county teams.

Capistrano Valley (18-2-3) is seeded second in Division I behind Upland (20-1-4) and could face Esperanza (18-4-5) in the quarterfinals Feb. 27. Edison (12-9-2) will host Aliso Niguel (8-9-3) in a Division I wild-card game Wednesday.

Santa Margarita (14-1-3) is top-seeded in Division II and Mater Dei (15-6-0) is seeded third. Mission Viejo was top-ranked in the division last week but was not seeded after losing to Capistrano Valley and Trabuco Hills in its final two South Coast League games.

Pacific Coast League champion Laguna Hills (17-6-1) is scheduled to play a wild-card game. The Hawks will host Anaheim (11-6-2).