East County teams jump-start CIF spring playoffs

The San Diego Section’s spring championship playoffs have faced off in boys tennis, boys and girls lacrosse, boys volleyball and girls beach vol­leyball while other sports — swimming and diving, track and field, baseball, softball, gymnastics and boys golf — find themselves on deck.

It will be a busy month that will spill over to the end of the 2025-26 interscholastic year.

BOYS TENNIS

Nine East County teams qualified for this year’s play­offs: No. 7 Valhalla, No. 9 Helix Charter and No. 11 Christian in Division I, No. 4 West Hills, No. 15 Steele Canyon and No. 16 Santana in Division II and No. 12 Grossmont, No. 13 Gran­ite Hills and El Capitan (play-in round) in Division III.

Steele Canyon was the brack­et buster in the Division II field with two upset victories — 9-9 (78-66 tiebreaker) in the first round over second-seeded Santa Fe Christian and 10-8 over No. 7 San Diego in the quarterfinals. The Cougars advanced as far as the division semifinals before being halted by an 11-7 loss to No. 11 Eastlake, the eventual division runner-up.

Eight of the nine teams bowed out early:

• Valhalla tied No. 10 Classi­cal Academy in the teams’ Di­vision I first-round match, 9-9, but lost the tiebreaker 89-76 in games.
• Helix lost 11-4 to eighth-seeded San Dieguito Academy while Christian lost 16-2 to sixth-seeded Mt. Carmel in the Division I opening round.
• West Hills saw its season end with an 11-7 upset to No. 13 Bonita Vista in the Division II bracket opener.
• Santana lost 16-2 to top-seeded Sage Creek in its Divi­sion II opener.
• Grossmont dropped its first-round Division III match, 11- 7, to fifth-seeded Southwest El Centro.
• Granite Hills ended its sea­son with a 14-4 setback to No. 4 Central Union, also in the Divi­sion III opening round.
• San Ysidro defeated El Capi­tan, 10-8, in a play-in match on April 27 to earn the No. 11 seed in Division III.

In championship finals played May 1-2 at the Barnes Tennis Center and Southwestern Col­lege. No. 2 Torrey Pines defeat­ed No. 1 Canyon Crest Academy, 10-8, to claim this year’s Open Division title while top-seeded Cathedra Catholic defeated No. 3 Francis Parker, 13-5 to cap­ture the Division I banner.

No. 5 St. Augustine and No. 11 Eastlake were the wildcards in Division II with the higher-seeded Saints defeating the Titans 11-7. Top-seeded Otay Ranch edged No. 2 Olympian, 11-7, in an all-Metro Conference final to round out the Division III bracket.

First-round matches took place April 28, followed by quar­terfinals on April 29 and semifi­nals on April 30.

The section’s individual play­offs are scheduled May 4-9, fol­lowed May 22-23 by the state regional team playoffs and May 30 state team championship.

BEACH VOLLEYBALL

This year ’s finals were spread across three divisions: Open (four teams), Division I (12 teams) and Division II (17 teams).

Two East County teams were represented in this year’s 33- team draw: No. 10 Helix Char­ter in Division I and No. 4 Steele Canyon in Division II.

Helix upset No. 7 Mission Bay, 3-2, in the teams’ Divi­sion II opening round match on April 30 to advance to Tuesday’s quarterfinals at second-seeded San Marcos.

Steele Canyon defeated No. 13 Pacific Ridge 5-0, in the Division II opening round on April 30 to advance to Tues­day’s quarterfinals against No. 5 Mira Mesa.

Semifinals were scheduled Thursday, followed by the cham­pionship round on Saturday at Mesa College — Division II at 10 a.m., Division I at noon and Open Division at 3 p.m.

This year’ top seeds include Cathedral Catholic (Open Divi­sion), Carlsbad (Division I) and Our Lady of Peace (Division II). Second-seeded teams included Pt. Loma (Open Division), San Marcos (Division I) and San Di­eguito Academy (Division II).

Defending division champions include Cathedral Catholic (over Torrey Pines) in the Open Divi­sion, San Marcos (over Carls­bad) in Division I and Eastlake (over Canyon Crest Academy) in Division II.

LACROSSE

A total of 11 East County teams (seven on the boys side and four on the girls side) quali­fied for this year’s section play­offs. Defending Division I boys champion Granite Hills (15-3) received the No. 1 seed among Division I teams while Valhalla (11-7) received the No. 1 seed among Division III boys teams.

Also advancing to postseason play were No. 8 Santana (9-11) in Division I, No. 6 El Capi­tan (12-5) in Division II, No. 9 Grossmont (10-7) in Division II, No. 11 West Hills (10-8) in Di­vision II and No. 10 Foothills Christian (5-11) in Division III.

Girls qualifiers included No. 11 Granite Hills (7-8) in Divi­sion II, No. 5 Grossmont (15-1) in Division II and No. 6 West Hills (7-13) in Division II.

First-round games were scheduled Tuesday and Wednes­day at sites of the higher-seeded team, followed by quarterfinals on Friday and Saturday, semifi­nals on May 12-13 and champi­onship games May 15-16.

Canyon Crest Academy is slated to host the girls finals while Patrick Henry High School has been selected to host the boys finals.

This year’s top seeds in the boys bracket include Torrey Pines (Open Division), Gran­ite Hills (Division I), Westview (Division II) and Valhalla (Divi­sion III). Top seeds in the girls bracket include Coronado (Open Division), Scripps Ranch (Divi­sion I), Pacific Ridge (Division II) and Classical Academy (Divi­sion III).

Besides Granite Hills, defend­ing boys champions include Tor­rey Pines (Open Division), San Dieguito Academy (Division II) and Mater Dei Catholic (Divi­sion III).

Defending girls champions include Coronado (Open Divi­sion), Carlsbad (Division I), Rancho Bernardo (Division II) and Olympian (Division III).

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

A total of seven East County teams qualified for this year’s section playoffs: No. 11 Granite Hills (20-12) in Division I, No. 4 Helix (26-7) in Division II, No. 10 West Hills (12-19) in Divi­sion III, No. 3 Christian (23-7) in Division IV, No. 7 Monte Vis­ta (17-23) in Division IV, No. 12 Santana (15-13) in Division IV and Mountain Empire (7-19) in Division V-AA.

Additionally, Grossmont (12- 13) and Victory Christian Acad­emy (13-17) were paired in a Division III play-in game to de­termine the No. 12 seed in the division.

First-round games were scheduled Tuesday and Wednes­day, followed by quarterfinals on Thursday and Friday. Semi­finals are scheduled May 12-13.

Championship games are scheduled May 14 at Logan Me­morial (Division IV and Divi­sion V-AA), May 15 at Mission Hills High School (Division I and Open Division) and May 16 at MiraCosta College (Divi­sion II and Division V) and Mira Mesa High School (Division III).

Top seeds include Bishop’s (34-3) in the Open Division, Canyon Crest Academy (20-13) in Division I, Coronado (22-6) in Division II, Sweetwater (26-5) in Division III), Tri-City Chris­tian (21-4) in Division IV, Del Lago Academy (24-7) in Divi­sion V and Escondido Adventist Academy (13-4) in Division V-AA.

Defending champions include Carlsbad (Open Division), St. Augustine (Division I), Claire­mont (Division II), Mater Dei Catholic (Division III), Fall­brook (Division IV), San Ysidro (Division V) and Tri-City Chris­tian (Division V-AA).

Next up are section playoffs in swimming and diving (Fri­day and Saturday at South­western College), track and field (Division I finals at Del Norte High School, Division II finals at University City High School and Division III finals at Canyon Hills High School on May 16 and section finals May 23 at Mt. Carmel High School), boys golf (May 18 at the Steele Canyon Golf Club), baseball and softball (May 19-30 at sites to be determined) and gymnastics (May 22 at Rancho Bernardo High School)