The CIF-Southern Section released the 2019 Spring Playoffs Groupings for boys tennis, softball, swimming, track & field, boys volleyball and baseball on Friday.
Santa Clarita Valley softball saw three teams change divisions with Golden Valley moving up while Hart and West Ranch moved down.
After finishing the season second place in the Foothill League standings, Golden Valley had its best season in program history in Division 3, after finishing 18-5 overall and going 7-3 in league play.
The Grizzlies went on two separate seven-game winning streaks and won 14 of their first 16 games and as a result, moved up to Division 2 in 2019.
West Ranch dropped one division to Division 3 after going 16-10 overall and finishing fourth in league play. Hart made the biggest move, dropping two divisions to Division 3. The Indians finished the season 8-17 overall.
Hart and Saugus boys tennis switched places with the Indians moving up to Division 2 and Saugus dropping to Division 3.
Boys volleyball saw the biggest shake-ups as five programs switched divisions.
Doing things differently in 2019, the CIF-SS decided to combine Division 1 and Division 2 in boys volleyball with playoff seeding to be decided at the last seeding meeting on Thursday, Apr. 25th. The top 16 teams will play in Division 1 and the remaining teams will make up a 32-team playoff bracket.
Canyon and Golden Valley moved down to Division 4 from Division 3 and Saugus fell to Division 3. All three teams finished with sub-.500 records, ending the year at the bottom of the Foothill League standings.
Hart and Valencia will play in Division 1/Division 2 after playing in Division 2 in 2018. The Indians were able to make a run into the Division 2 playoffs after winning their play-in match against Millikan and taking down Hillcrest before falling to the eventual champions Orange Lutheran in the second round.
“I’m excited about the group of players I’m getting from last year and our goal is to improve on what they achieved already,” said first-year Hart boys volleyball head coach Loy Mueller via text. “The new seeding definitely makes each game matter more the second we start. I think it’s an exciting change and I’m interested to see how they play out throughout the season.”
Valencia made a deeper run in the Division 2 playoffs, falling to Orange Lutheran in the semifinals. The Vikings dropped just five games in four matches.
“The teams in D1/D2 group look pretty close,” said Valencia boys volleyball head coach Kevin Kornegay via text message. “Most of the teams that we played this year are from that pool of teams.”
Trinity Classical Academy baseball moves up to Division 6 after making it to the Division 7 championship game in 2018, going 18-4 overall and 8-2 in Heritage League.
Santa Clarita Christian School fell to Division 7 from Division 6, having its worst season in terms of wins (8) since 2011 where they won seven games.
Saugus and Golden Valley baseball moved down a division to Division 3 and Division 5, respectively.
