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Dorado Hills Oak Ridge (Sac-Joaquin Division II runner-up, 38-5) DIVISION II
Regional quarterfinals, Tuesday, 7 p.m.
By Lauren Peterson Los Angeles Times
The results of the Southern Section's decision to base league playoff realignments in girls' volleyball on competitive equity became apparent when anticipation turned to anger and confusion with the release Sunday of the state girls' volleyball playoff pairings.While teams were placed in state playoff divisions based on their schools' enrollment figures, Southern Section playoff brackets were filled with teams based on their leagues' strength.
The difference between the seeding methods left some of the Southland's top teams out of the state playoffs in favor of seemingly weaker teams that performed well in the lower divisions of the section playoffs.
Southern Section Division III-AA champion Placentia Valencia and runner-up Downey Warren, along with Southern Section Division II-A champion Pasadena, will compete in Division I in the state playoffs, which is considered the strongest level.
Based on enrollment, that is where these teams should be, but their presence has caused a domino effect, knocking more recognizably stronger teams out of the state playoffs altogether.
'It's just a shame, and I think it's a travesty for Southern California volleyball,' Vista Murrieta Coach Kristen Robarts said.
Vista Murrieta advanced to the Division I-AA quarterfinals, where it lost to eventual champion Redondo in five games, but the Broncos will have no shot at a state championship despite the fact that the Broncos beat Redondo early in the season to win a tournament in Kauai.
The Southern Section had four of the eight berths into each of the five divisions in the Southern California regional playoffs that begin this week. With other criteria, including a guaranteed berth in the enrollment-based division for every section champion, some competitive schools like Vista Murrieta were out of luck.
After placing section champions, the one spot left in the Division I playoffs went to Los Alamitos, a Division I-AA sectional semifinalist that was knocked out of the playoffs by Manhattan Beach Mira Costa, the top-ranked team in the nation.
Los Alamitos, which was the Southern Section Division I-AA and state Division I champion in 2005, will be a prohibitive favorite against any of the section's other three representatives in the Division I regionals.
'I'm happy for Valencia, they've had a great season - but we beat 'em,' Robarts said.
Vista Murrieta, a 3-year-old school with an up-and-coming team that was considered for the last Division I state spot along with Los Alamitos, swept Placentia Valencia in a best-of-three match in the Huntington Beach Edison/Dave Mohs Memorial tournament in September. The Broncos also defeated nationally recognized Newport Harbor and Anaheim Esperanza.
'I think the bottom line is, are we seeing the best teams in Division I? And the answer is, 'No.' The way this is structured, we're not sending our best teams,' said Isaac Owens, coach at Esperanza, the 2005 Southern Section Division I-AA champion and a state Division I semifinalist the same year.
This year, the Aztecs, who play in the Sunset League, arguably the Southern Section's toughest in girls' volleyball, fell in the Division I-AA quarterfinals to Santa Margarita, a section semifinalist which, based on enrollment, is in the Division III state playoffs. Esperanza swept Santa Barbara, which was the Division I-A runner-up in the section playoffs but will play in the Southern California regionals in Division II. The Aztecs did not make the Division I state playoffs.
Warren Coach Scott Lane, an active AVP tour pro, said he's not going to debate the issue.
'Whatever the CIF comes up with, I fully agree with,' he said. 'My job is to coach my team, and I don't really get involved in any of the politics. We just have to adapt, just like, as a player, you have to adapt.'
The Southern Section is the only section in the state that employs the competitive-equity model for its playoff groupings. The Northern, Central, Los Angeles and San Diego sections parallel the state playoffs by using enrollment-based groupings.
The Southern Section did too, until this year, when the new system was approved at the behest of schools with large enrollments but with less-established or traditionally strong programs, who voted for it in hopes of improving their chances to win a section title.
Southern Section volleyball officials could not be reached for comment.
Janet Berardi, La Palma Kennedy athletic director and the Southern California regional tournament director, said the section followed the directives of its principals and athletic directors in approving and implementing the new system.
'The Council voted on that, and that was definitely the consensus,' she said. 'The schools pretty overwhelming wanted it.'
