Girls’ lacrosse: Playoff action opens

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The chase for the (unofficial) Southern Section girls lacrosse crown gets underway with opening-round playoff games Friday and Saturday.

The eight-team Orange County playoff gets underway with quarterfinal action Friday:

#8 Aliso Niguel vs. #1 Beckman at Hicks Canyon Elementary (Irvine), 4:30 p.m.
#5 Tesoro at #4 St. Margaret’s, 5 p.m.
#6 Trabuco Hills at #3 Los Alamitos, 4 p.m.
#7 Mission Viejo at #2 Foothill, 4 p.m.

The Orange County semifinals will be played Monday, and the final May 7 at Trabuco Hills at 7 p.m. The Orange County champion will play the North Division champion for an overall championship May 9 at 5 p.m., also at Trabuco Hills.

The North Division playoff picture is a bit more muddled, as the Condor League, which includes powerful Cate and Thacher, has elected not to participate because of calendar conflicts.

The Bay League opens tournament action Saturday with Redondo playing at Beverly Hills and Culver City at Peninsula. The top two seeded teams, Palos Verdes and Mira Costa, have byes into Monday’s semifinals. The Bay League championship game will be May 7 at Mira Costa at 5 p.m.

The Bay League champion is tentatively scheduled to play the top North Division freelance team on May 8, with the winner of that contest taking on the Orange County champion the next day.

-- Eric Maddy, Times’ stats guru and lacrosse dude