Goalie Murdoch Baker Matsuoka, left, and his Sacred Heart Prep team, is the No. 1 seed in the Open Division as the Gators look to add a 16th straight CCS title.
The seeding meeting is complete and the pairing are drawn for the Central Coast Section boys’ and girls’ water polo bracket, which begin Saturday with first-round games.
Not surprisingly the Sacred Heart Prep girls’ and boys’ teams are the No. 1 seeds in the Open Division, thus making them the top teams in all of CCS. Both are defending Open Division champs, with the SHP boys having won 13 straight CCS championships and the Lady Gators having won back-to-back crowns.
Let’s look at the local teams that qualified for the CCS tournament.
This is looking like a SHP-Menlo School showdown as the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds. The two have already met twice this season, with the Gators clinching the West Catholic Athletic League regular-season title with a 13-8 win over the Knights, and then beating them again in the WCAL tournament championship match.
SHP (17-6) will host No. 8 Santa Cruz (12-11) at 1 p.m. Saturday. Menlo (19-7) will be at No. 7 Los Altos (19-8) at 1 p.m. The Eagles won the 2024 Division I championship.
Serra followed up last year’s Division I finals appearance by earning the No. 1 seed in Division I this season. The Padres (16-11) will take on No. 8 Milpitas (21-2) at 10 a.m. Saturday at Sacred Heart Prep.
Menlo-Atherton (15-9), the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division champion, got the No. 4 seed at will host No. 5 Homestead (13-10) at 1 p.m. Saturday.
Sequoia (15-9), which qualified for CCS for the second straight year after having never previously gotten in, is seeded No. 6 and will face longtime polo power and third-seeded Bellarmine (7-18) at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Los Altos High School. The Bells have won 28 CCS titles since 1974, with their last being a co-champion in 2018 with SHP.
Burlingame (15-9) — which finished in a tie for second with Sequoia in the Bay Division standings and had to win a play-in game against Aragon — got the No.7 seed and will take on No. 2 Pioneer (19-7) at 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Sacred Heart Prep.
This is the Panthers first CCS appearance since 2017.
While the SHP and Menlo boys’ teams can’t face each other until the finals, their female counterparts drew each other for a first-round match as top-seeded SHP (22-2) hosts No. 8 Menlo (12-12) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
Like the boys, the SHP and Menlo girls have already faced off twice this season, with the Gators winning both meetings, including the WCAL tournament final.
The top three PAL Bay Division teams will all appear in the Division I bracket, led by fourth-seeded Menlo-Atherton (13-10), which will host No. 5 Leigh (7-8) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
Woodside (9-6), the second-place finisher in the Bay Division, was seeded sixth, but will host No. 3 Los Gatos (12-13) at 1 p.m. Saturday.
The Bay Division’s third-place finisher Aragon (11-6), which beat Burlingame in a play-in match, drew the No. 8 seed and will be at No. 1 Los Altos (20-4) at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
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