Holy Family, Sacred Heart, CV begin CIF
GLENDALE — With the Southern Section divisional playoff brackets released by the CIF offices on Sunday, the girls’ volleyball teams from Holy Family High , Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy and Crescenta Valley now have a roadmap for their respective playoff journeys that will begin on Tuesday.
Holy Family, which captured the Horizon League championship this season, will host Santa Clarita Christian in the opening round of the Division 4-A playoffs at 4 p.m. at Providence High.
“We’re coming off a loss Friday, so that’s a good wake-up call for the girls,” Gaels Coach Robert Bringas said. “As far as us matching up with Santa Clarita, we played them in the Burbank [Summer] League and I know we did pretty well against them, but we didn’t have everybody there. I think we’re equally matched.”
If Holy Family (12-12) can get by the Cardinals, who finished third in the Heritage League, they will likely have to face top-seeded Hemet on Thursday.
“I’m pretty confident about the first round,” Bringas said. “The second round’s a whole different story. We got no love from CIF right there, but that’s fine.
“We’ve never gotten a real generous seed, but we’ll come out there and we’ll play whoever.”
Sacred Heart (15-13) finished second in the Mission League for the fourth year in a row and will host Edison (19-8), the third-place team from the Sunset League, at 7 p.m. in its Division 1-AA opener.
Awaiting the Tologs, should they advance, would be either Marmonte League champion Thousand Oaks or South Coast at-large El Toro.
Crescenta Valley draws a tough first-round assignment, both competitively and geographically.
After wrapping up a fourth-place Pacific League finish, the Falcons (14-13) must travel to Palm Springs to take on Desert Valley League champion Palm Springs (23-2-1) at 7 p.m. in a Division 2-A first-round match.
Still, first-year Falcons Coach Steven Umemoto is optimistic.
“It’s gonna be a far drive, but I feel pretty confident about how we ended the season and I think we have a good chance of taking this first game,” said Umemoto, whose team would face either Capistrano Valley Christian or Warren in the next round. “It’s not too bad of a draw. …I think we have a good chance of going out and surprising some people.”