Estancia, CdM get CIF seeds

The Estancia High boys volleyball team will begin defense of its CIF

Southern Section Division III championship as the No. 4 seed, while

Corona del Mar earned the No. 2 seed in Division II to highlight

playoff pairings announced Monday.

Newport Harbor, which like Estancia and CdM won its league title,

gets a first-round Division I home match Friday night, while Costa

Mesa High also opens at home Friday in Division III.

Estancia (19-9, 12-0 in the Golden West League) plays host to San

Gorgonio (8-8) in the first round Friday.

All matches are scheduled for 7 p.m.

Corona del Mar (23-7, 9-1 in the Pacific Coast League), which

finished the regular season with a disappointing four-game loss to

Newport Harbor Friday, gets a first-round bye.

Coach Steve Conti’s Sea Kings will play host to the winner of

Friday’s first-round clash between El Modena (14-10) and Yucaipa

(10-5), May 17.

Newport Harbor (18-11, 10-0 in the Sea View League) plays host to

Huntington Beach (21-3) Friday, while Costa Mesa (12-4, 9-3) plays host to Santa Monica (17-8).

Estancia’s road to a potential second straight CIF crown has

already taken a detour. The original bracket had the Eagles seeded

No. 3, which might have meant a semifinal date with No. 2-seeded

Oxnard.

But, since section officials incorrectly placed Estancia and Costa

Mesa in the same quadrant of the bracket, a violation of section

bylaws prohibiting the first- and second-place teams from the same

league being so aligned, Estancia was shifted to the upper half of

the bracket. The change means the Eagles are now the No. 4 seed. To

reach the final, they would conceivably have to defeat top-seeded

Orange Lutheran.

Coach Tracey Ingraham’s Eagles have a history with the Lancers,

having beaten them in last year’s title match.

But Orange Lutheran (15-5), the champion of the Empire League,

swept the Eagles, 25-22, 25-19, in the Orange County championships in

mid-March.

“Our guys are fired up,” Ingraham said. “They want to play Orange

Lutheran and they don’t care when.”

The shift could also create a potential second-round matchup of

Estancia and Camarillo, which the Eagles defeated in the semifinals

last season.

The Newport Habor-Huntington Beach matchup is a rematch of an

April 1 nonlegaue contest, a match won by the visiting Oilers, 25-21,

25-19, 21-25, 15-25, 18-16.