<\/p>\n
Four Moore League teams begin their playoff journeys this evening, at 7pm\u2014and if you believe the rankings, they’ll likely be more like a quick jaunt than am extended trip. <\/span>Three of the league’s teams will be facing CIF Top 10 teams.<\/p>\n Poly vs. Edison, @ Poly, 7pm The Poly Jackrabbits’ first reaction to seeing the brackets released on Sunday was likely along the lines of, “Wait\u2026didn’t we win<\/em> league this year?” <\/span>Nonetheless, the Jackrabbits have a harder draw than second-place Wilson, since Poly will play host to CIF no. 7 Edison tonight. <\/span>The Chargers are the no. 3 seed out of the Sunset League, but obviously are of a high caliber; they swept Wilson when they played at Best in the West, swept Los Al three times, and took Newport Harbor to five sets. <\/span>Given that Poly coach Vuthy Cheav was unsure as to top hitter John La Rusch’s availability (still nagged by that abdominal injury), it could be a tough night for the league champs. Wilson @ Santa Barbara, 7pm On the other hand, Wilson, as the two-seed, has a longer drive, but an easier opponent (not that there are any easy opponents in the D-1 bracket). <\/span>Santa Barbara is the only non-Top 10 team facing a local program this evening. <\/span>The two-seed from the Channel League behind Dos Peublos, the Dons boast a five-set slugfest victory over Wilson on their tough schedule. <\/span>They have six players on the roster listed at 6’3″ or taller\u2014and this is the easiest <\/em>team a Moore League program will face tonight, remember. <\/span>The Bruins have had issues in the middle at times, and the Dons’ top player 6’8″ junior Cliff Anderson happens to occupy that spot. Millikan @ Newport Harbor, 7pm The Rams met coach Greg Kautz’s preseason goal of making CIF, and what do they get but an opening-round match against CIF no. 6 Newport Harbor, a perennial contender and top program? <\/span>The Sailors took second in the Sunset League behind a surprising Esperanza squad, and they will be a tall task indeed for Millikan, a scrappy team who’s used to being counted out. <\/span>Newport Harbor has yet to lose to a non-CIF Top 10 team, however, and boast a typical OC roster of size and talent. <\/span> Lakewood @ Mira Costa, 7pm Wow. <\/span>The Mustangs are ESPN’s no. 2 team in the nation, the top seed in this practice, and a large favorite to win the CIF title. <\/span>They’re 27-1 and have lost less sets than Lakewood has matches, with a roster that looks more like a D-1 college team than a high school program. <\/span>If Lakewood pulls off an upset here\u2026well, you can expect to hear about it for a long time to come. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Quick capsule previews of where our four local teams will be headed, and who they’ll face this evening in round one of the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-1243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1243\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1243"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=1243"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}