A look ahead

What’s happening in high school playoffs this week:

Swimming

Southern Section boys’ and girls’ preliminaries and finals take place this week at the Belmont Plaza Olympic Pool in Long Beach. The Division I prelims begin at noon today with the finals at 6 p.m. Friday. The Division II prelims begin at 10 a.m. Thursday with the finals at 4 p.m. Saturday. The Division III prelims begin at 10 a.m. Friday with the finals at 10 a.m. Saturday. The Division IV prelims were Tuesday and the finals at 6 p.m. Thursday.

Southern Section Division IV boys’ diving prelims and finals take place today from 10 to 11:30 a.m., followed by the girls’ prelims and finals from 3 to 6 p.m., both at Claremont McKenna College.

Southern Section swimming and diving Masters Meet takes place Tuesday at Belmont Plaza. Diving begins at noon and swimming at 5 p.m.

Lacrosse

Oak Park meets Palos Verdes in the North Division (Los Angeles and Ventura counties) boys’ final today at 7 p.m. at Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, where the girls’ title game between Palos Verdes and Mira Costa begins at 5.

The Orange County girls’ championship game also takes place today at 7 p.m. at Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills, where Los Alamitos takes on San Juan Capistrano St. Margaret’s.

Santa Ana Foothill, which defeated St. Margaret’s, 11-4, in the Orange County boys’ title game Friday, will meet the North Division winner in the “unofficial” Southern Section championship at 7 p.m. Friday at Trabuco Hills. The girls’ title game precedes it at 5 p.m.

Boys’ tennis

City Section team Invitational Division semifinals take place today at 1 p.m. at the Balboa Tennis Center in Encino. Ninth-seeded Los Angeles University plays 13th-seeded Sherman Oaks CES and sixth-seeded Lake Balboa Birmingham plays second-seeded North Hills Monroe.

Title matches in both the Championship -- top-seeded Woodland Hills Taft meets second-seeded Palisades -- and Invitational divisions begin at noon Friday at the Balboa Tennis Center, which is the site of the section’s individual playoffs, which begin Tuesday.

The first round of the Southern Section team playoffs is Thursday, the second is Saturday and the quarterfinals are Tuesday.

Badminton

The Southern Section individual mixed-doubles finals will begin at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Orange County Badminton Club in Orange, where the individual singles and doubles finals will be contested beginning at 1 p.m. Saturday.

Boys’ golf

Southern Section team finals begin with an 8 a.m. shotgun start Thursday at Candlewood Country Club in Whittier.

Individual regionals take place Monday. The Central regional begins at 7:30 a.m. at the Landmark at Hemet Golf Club, the Southern at 7 a.m. at SeaCliff Country Club in Huntington Beach and the Northern at 7:30 a.m. at Sterling Hills Golf Club in Camarillo.

City Section finals will be Monday at Griffith Park’s Harding Golf Course at 9 a.m., and May 14 at Griffith Park’s Wilson Golf Course at 10 a.m.

Boys’ volleyball

Quarterfinal matches in the City Section’s Championship, Invitational and Small Schools divisions will be Thursday, with the semifinals Tuesday.

Southern Section playoffs begin with first-round matches Friday and second-round matches Tuesday.

Softball

Southern Section playoff pairings will be announced Monday. The City Section playoffs continue with second-round games Thursday and the quarterfinals Tuesday.

Track and field

Southern Section preliminaries will take place Saturday, with field events beginning at 11 a.m. and running events at noon.

The Division I prelims will be held at Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills, Division II at Moorpark, Division III at Downey Warren and Division IV at Carpinteria.

Baseball

Southern Section playoff pairings will be announced Monday, with wild-card games Tuesday.