Three Orange County teams are in the elite Division 1 bracket for the CIF Southern Section girls volleyball playoffs.
Mater Dei is seeded No. 1 among the eight teams selected for the bracket. Huntington Beach is seeded third and Los Alamitos seventh.
Division 1 is divided into two, four-team pools. Mater Dei is in Pool A. Huntington Beach and Los Alamitos are in Pool B. There are three rounds of pool play: Wednesday, Oct. 24 and Oct. 28.
The Division 1 championship match is Nov. 4 at 7 p.m. at Cerritos College. Sierra Canyon was last season’s Division 1 champion.
Championship matches for Divisions 2-9 also are on Nov. 4 at sites that will be determined after semifinal matches are played Oct. 28.
In Division 2-9, the playoffs start with wild card-round matches Tuesday. First-round matches are Thursday.
All matches through the semifinals start at 6 p.m.
Among the first-round matches Thursday is Aliso Niguel (12-12), the third-place team in the deep South Coast League, against Wave League champion Corona del Mar (17-10) at Corona del Mar High.
Corona del Mar beat Aliso Niguel in four sets on Sept. 5. Aliso Niguel won the first set, Corona del Mar won the next three.
Aliso Niguel coach Richelle Whiting was impressed by the Sea Kings.
“They’re just classic girls volleyball players,” Whiting said. “They play defense and pass well and they’re super-smart on the attack. The longer we can stretch them out (by extending rallies) and make them play defense the better it could be for us.”
JSerra (25-10), which finished second to Mater Dei in the Trinity League, is seeded second in Division 2. Trinity League third-place team, Orange Lutheran (22-13), is seeded fourth in Division 2.
Pacific Coast League champion Beckman (29-5) is seeded No. 1 in Division 3. San Joaquin League champion Capistrano Valley Christian (28-4) is seeded second in Division 4.
Pacific Hills League champion Irvine (17-8) is seeded third in Division 5. Pacific Coast League runner-up Northwood (25-5) is seeded fourth in Division 5.
Orangewood Academy (18-9), the second-place team from the Academy League, is seeded second in Division 8.
