There will be Huntington Beach vs. Newport Harbor III in the first round of games in the CIF Southern Section boys volleyball playoffs.
The decades-long rivals meet in the Division 1 contest at Newport Harbor on Wednesday.
Newport Harbor beat Huntington Beach in their two Surf League matches, 3-1 and 3-0.
All matches through the semifinals begin at 7 p.m.
Division 1 of the boys volleyball playoffs now uses a pool-play format. The CIF-SS Boys Volleyball Advisory Committee selected the eight teams for Division 1. Six of the eight teams selected are from Orange County: Beckman, Corona del Mar, Edison, Huntington Beach, Mater Dei and Newport Harbor. The other two selections are top-seeded Loyola and Mira Costa.
The winner of Pool A plays the Pool B winner in the Division 1 championship game May 13 at 7 p.m. at Cerritos College. All six division finals are at Cerritos College on May 13.
In Pool A first-round games Wednesday: Beckman at Loyola (17-1) and Edison (19-8) at Corona del Mar (17-8). In Pool B first-round games Wednesday: Huntington Beach (22-6) at Newport Harbor (30-1) and Mater Dei (27-10-1) at Mira Costa (25-3).
Corona del Mar beat Edison in four sets on March 10. Mater Dei lost at home to Mira Costa in five sets on March 27. Beckman, which beat Mater Dei twice and Newport Harbor once during the regular season, did not play Loyola during the regular season.
Orange Coast League champion St. Margaret’s (26-5) is the No. 1-seed in Division 3.
Division 5 had more than the 32 guaranteed entries for its 32-team bracket. Division 5 will have 26 wild card games to reduce the field of teams to 32 for the first round.
The division has wild card games in which the winner advances to another wild card game. Example: Santa Ana plays Santa Ana Valley in a wild card game Monday, with the winner advancing to a wild card game Wednesday against Ambassador Christian of Torrance. The winner of that second wild card game advances to the first round to play Garey of Pomona.
