Damien Earns Top Seeding in Soccer

La Verne Damien, which won its last 15 games of the regular season en route to a 24-2-2 record, will be the top-seeded team in Division I when the Southern Section boys’ soccer playoffs begin with wild-card games Wednesday. First-round games will be played Friday.

Huntington Beach Edison (20-2), Pomona Diamond Ranch (18-3-3) and Redlands East Valley (20-2-2) round out the top-four seeded teams in Division I.

The other top-seeded teams are Thousand Oaks (22-3-3) in Division II, Santa Ana Saddleback (22-2-1) in Division III, Pomona Ganesha (22-1) in Division IV, defending champion Lancaster Paraclete (17-5-4) in Division V and Ontario Christian (15-5-3) in Division VI.

-- John Ortega

Girls’ Soccer

Defending champion San Clemente, ranked No. 1 in the Southland by The Times, will be the top-seeded team in the Southern Section Division I playoffs.

The Tritons (13-2-7), who tied in the final last season with South Coast League rival Mission Viejo, have proven themselves tournament ready by winning the Santa Ana Mater Dei and Santa Ana Foothill Excalibur tournaments in December.

San Clemente will play host to Chino (14-8-1), which finished third in the Sierra League, in a first-round game on Saturday. The Tritons face a possible matchup with The Times’ No. 4 team, fourth-seeded Huntington Beach Edison (18-2-4), in the semifinals on March 2.

Los Alamitos, which won the Sunset League over Edison for the Griffins’ first league title since 1996, is seeded second in Division I and Saturday will play host to Mission Viejo Capistrano Valley, an at-large team from the South Coast League, the division’s most competitive league.

Second-ranked Arcadia (21-1-2) is seeded No. 1 in Division II and will play host to Simi Valley Royal on Saturday. Defending division champion Westlake Village Westlake (16-1-2), ranked No. 6, is seeded third behind Ventura Buena.

In Division III, No. 7 Walnut (23-1-1) and No. 8 Fullerton Sunny Hills (26-2) are seeded first and second, and No. 9 Riverside King (23-2-1) received top billing in Division IV.

-- Elia Powers

Girls’ Water Polo

As expected, Newport Harbor was awarded the No. 1 seeding in the Southern Section Division I playoffs, which begin today with wild-card games and continue Thursday with first-round games.

Newport Harbor (23-3), a semifinalist last season, made its case for top billing in the 16-team draw by defeating defending champion Santa Ana Foothill in two of the teams’ three meetings this season. The Sailors will play the winner of a wild-card match today involving Lakewood and Bell Gardens on Thursday at Newport Harbor.

Foothill (24-3), which has won the last four Division I titles, is seeded second and will face Burbank in the first round. The Knights are followed in the seedings by No. 3 Los Alamitos (20-8) and No. 4 Long Beach Wilson (20-7).

In the other five divisions, the top-seeded teams are defending champions -- Corona del Mar in Division II, Temple City in Division III, Santa Barbara, which has an 18-game winning streak, in Division IV, Upland in Division V and Rowland Heights Rowland in Division VI.

-- Lauren Peterson

Girls’ Basketball

One day after tradition was broken by seeding the second-place team from the Olympic League ahead of its first-place team, the Southern Section had second thoughts.

Downey Calvary Chapel (22-3), which won a coin flip with Brentwood to enter the Division IV-A playoffs as the league’s first-place entry, on Monday was moved from the No. 3 seeding to the No. 1 position.

Brentwood (21-6) was dropped to second and Los Angeles Windward (21-4) was dropped to third. Brentwood beat Windward twice during the season.

“Basically, I slept on it,” said Paul Castillo, assistant commissioner in charge of basketball. “It’s my decision to make it one way or the other.”

Calvary Chapel defeated Brentwood in its last meeting, 53-45, but that victory was not reflected in the section poll voted on by Southland coaches, which meant it was also not reflected in the initial pairings for the 32-team bracket.

A similar occurrence happened in Division III-A. Del Rey League runner-up La Puente Bishop Amat was seeded second and Del Rey champion Torrance Bishop Montgomery was seeded fourth. There was no second-guessing, though, as the section let the draw stand.

-- Martin Henderson