Quartet of local girls’ volleyball teams qualify for CIF playoffs

Four local girls’ volleyball teams now have their attention turned to the CIF Southern Section playoffs.

Flintridge Sacred Heart Academy, La Cañada High, Glendale Adventist Academy and Glendale will try to register successful postseason journeys after the playoff pairings were announced Friday for all 10 divisions.

Flintridge Sacred Heart, La Cañada and Glendale Adventist will host first-round matches at 7 p.m. Tuesday. Glendale will compete in the lone wild-card match at 3 p.m. Saturday at Crossroads.

The Tologs, who finished second in the Mission League, will compete in Division I-AA bracket this season after reaching the Division I-A semifinals last season under coach Ernest Banaag. Flintridge Sacred Heart (27-6) will meet Palos Verdes, which is 9-18 and finished third in the Bay League.

Banaag, the reigning All-Area Girls’ Volleyball Coach of the Year, said the Tologs have plenty of leadership and playoff experience to make them a serious threat in the division.

“I feel like the CIF playoffs will be tough, but we have had a great season and I like our chances in the playoffs,” Banaag said. “I don’t know much about Palos Verdes, because we don’t have anything on them for the moment, so we need to just focus on us and doing everything our way and what we are good at.”

The winner of the Flintridge Sacred Heart-Palos Verdes match will meet Corona del Mar (21-5) or Serra (17-12) in a second-round match Thursday. Corona del Mar won the Pacific Coast League title and Serra finished third in the Del Rey League.

La Cañada will return to the Division II-AA playoffs after going 14-9 and finishing second in the Rio Hondo League.

The Spartans will look to keep their momentum after recently competing in the tough Redondo Union Tournament.

“We went 3-3 at Redondo and played some very good teams,” said La Cañada Coach Brock Turner, who led the Spartans to a CIF championship in 2008. “It gives us something to build off of.

“It’s a wonderful time of the year being a part of the playoffs. We don’t know anything about Costa Mesa, but our players are excited.”

Costa Mesa (10-11) took third in the Orange Coast League.

The La Cañada-Costa Mesa winner would face Arroyo Grande (18-0) or Heritage Christian (9-8) in a second-round tilt Thursday. Arroyo Grande won the PAC-8 League championship. Heritage Christian received an at-large berth after placing fourth in the Olympic League.

Glendale Adventist finished 7-7 for third place in the Independence League. The Cougars will begin the Division V-AA playoffs against Coastal Christian, which went 10-12 and placed third in the Coast Valley League.

The winner of the Glendale Adventist-Academy-Coastal Union match will then take on top-seeded Santa Clarita Christian on Thursday in a second-round match. Santa Clarita Christian is 10-3 and captured the Heritage League title.

Glendale will have a quick turnaround in the Division II-A playoffs. For the second straight season, the Nitros will compete in a wild-card match. They fell in five games last season to Rio Hondo Prep.

Glendale (11-11) finished fourth in the Pacific League and will get a crack at Crossroads (10-6). Crossroads finished fourth in the Gold Coast League.

“It doesn’t matter to me that we are playing in a wild-card game,” Glendale Coach Ta’ase Mose said. “Hopefully, we’ve learned from our experience last year and we know how to close games out against a good team from a good league.”

The winner will meet top-seeded Louisville (20-5), which won the Sunshine League crown.