CCS volleyball begins Saturday

San Mateo County qualified teams into all six brackets, with 15 schools earning a berth. The Peninsula Athletic League had seven teams from two divisions qualify. The Bay Division’s Menlo-Atherton, Burlingame and Aragon, along with Ocean Division champion Half Moon Bay, all earned automatic bids. Three other PAL teams — Carlmont, Sequoia from the Bay, and Ocean Division second-place finisher Capuchino — received at-large berths.

The West Bay Athletic League had another strong showing as a whole, with eight teams — six from the county — making the cut from two different divisions. Foothill Division champion Mercy leads the way, followed by Sacred Heart Prep, Menlo School and Notre Dame-Belmont, along with Skyline Division co-champion Crystal, all qualifying.

And as usual, the CCS’s top league, the West Catholic Athletic League, had all seven of its teams qualify.

Here is a breakdown of county teams, by division. The CCS finals are scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 9.

Open Division — eight teams

Menlo-Atherton (25-7) and Burlingame (20-6), which finished in a tie for first place in the PAL’s Bay Division, were both placed into the CCS’s top division.

The Bears, which won the tiebreaker with the Panthers to be the No. 1 seed out of the PAL, received the No. 6 seed and will be at No. 3 Palo Alto (29-4) in a quarterfinal game at 2:30 p.m. Saturday. Two met during a tournament game in September, with the Vikings posting a 2-0 set sweep.

Burlingame, the 2023 Division III CCS champion, was seeded No. 8 and has the unenviable task of meeting top-seeded Mitty (26-5) in San Jose at 2 p.m. Saturday. The good news for the Panthers is they automatic qualify for the Northern California regional tournament by virtue of making the CCS Open Division bracket.

Mercy (22-5), which claimed the outright WBAL Foothill Division championship with a five-set win over Sacred Heart Prep Wednesday night, earned the No. 7 seed and will be on the road at No. 2 St. Francis (25-5) at 2 p.m. Saturday. The Lancers finished as co-champions with Mitty in WCAL, but was the No. 2 seed out of the league for CCS.

Division I — 10 teams

Sequoia (13-19) and Carlmont (14-12) got the nod out of the PAL Bay Division for this bracket, with the Scots getting a bye into the quarterfinals.

The Ravens got the No. 9 seed and will be at No. 8 Los Altos (13-19) at 2 p.m. Saturday, with the winner getting top-seeded Homestead (25-8) in a quarterfinal match Tuesday.

Sequoia was a bit of a surprise selection. The Ravens finished sixth in the Bay Division with a 4-10 record, a game behind fifth-place Hillsdale, which finished 5-9 in league play. Sequoia, techincally, did not leapfrog the Knights, however. The Knights did not qualify for CCS because they did not have a .500 record in league or non-league play.

Sequoia, despite its 4-10 record in PAL play, went 9-9 in non-league play to meet the first eligibility requirement. The Ravens’ point total then got them into the field.

The Scots made the bracket much more comfortably and won’t take the floor until next week. They will be on the road at No. 4 Milpitas at 7 p.m. Tuesday. The two met during a September tournament with Carlmont winning 2-1.

Division II — 10 teams

Aragon (17-16), which is the back-to-back defending CCS Division II champion, is the only county team in this bracket and the one of the few to get a home game. The third-seeded Dons host No. 6 Willow Glen (15-12) in a quarterfinal match at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

The Dons finished in a third-place tie with Carlmont in the PAL’s Bay Division, but the tiebreaker favored them as the third automatic bid out of the division.

Division III — 13 teams

One of two 13-team brackets, Capuchino (18-9) in the only team flying the flag for San Mateo County. The Mustangs will make the long drive and take on No. 7 Monterey (19-12) at 7 p.m. Saturday. If the Mustangs can pull off the upset, they’ll get to make an even longer drive for a Tuesday night quarterfinal match at No. 2 King City (18-10).

Division IV — 13 teams

This division has one of the larger county contingents, with Sacred Heart Prep (18-14), Notre Dame-Belmont (11-13) and Menlo School (14-14) representing the WBAL, and PAL Ocean Division champion Half Moon Bay (20-11) also making the cut.

Of that quartet, only SHP got a bye into Tuesday’s quarterfinal round. The third-seeded Gators will host the winner of No. 11 Presentation (10-22) and No. 6 Pacific Grove (13-11) at 7 p.m.

In Saturday first-round matches, No. 10 NDB, which was a 2023 Division IV finalist, and No. 7 HMB meet at 2 p.m. The two faced off in the Aragon tournament Oct. 12, with the Tigers coming away with a 25-23, 26-24 sweep.

The winner gets No. 2 Carmel (21-4) in a quarterfinal match at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

Menlo, the No. 9 seed, will face a familiar opponent when the Knights make the short drive to Sunnyvale to take on No. Harker (18-8) at 2 p.m. The Eagles finished as co-champs with Crystal in the WBAL’s Skyline Division.

Division V — 10 teams

The domain of the CCS’s smallest schools, with four county teams making the cut.

Crystal (23-4), which finished as co-champs of the WBAL’s Skyline Division and is the defending DV champion, got the No. 2 seed and appears on a collision course with Private School Athletic League champ and No. 1 seed Summit Shasta (23-4).

Both have first-round byes. The Gryphons will play a quarterfinal game at 7 p.m. Tuesday against the winner of No. 10 Pacific Bay Christian (13-11) and No. 7 Castilleja (11-10), which made the Division V finals last season. They tip off at 2 p.m. Saturday.

Summit Shasta will host a quarterfinal game at 7 p.m. Tuesday against the winner of No. 9 BASIS (13-0) and No. 8 Nueva School (11-11), which meet at 7 p.m. Saturday.