State Volleyball Pairings Are Set

After Laguna Beach lost to Manhattan Beach Mira Costa in the Southern Section Division I final on Saturday, Artists girls’ volleyball Coach Bill Christiansen vowed his team will do better in the State tournament, which begins Tuesday, with first-round matches at 7 p.m.

Sunday, Christiansen and the Artists found out how difficult that will be, when the Southern Region pairings were announced. Laguna Beach (18-4) will travel to third-seeded San Diego Mt. Carmel (27-3) for the first round and could face second-seeded Mira Costa (22-3) in the second round Nov. 25.

Mater Dei (20-3), which lost to Laguna Beach in the Southern Section semifinals, received an at-large berth to the State tournament and will play Los Angeles Roosevelt (25-1) at East Los Angeles College in the first round.

One surprise in the pairings was that neither Huntington Beach nor Newport Harbor received an at-large berth. The Oilers (17-1) were top-ranked in the state but lost to the Sailors (12-6) in the Southern Section quarterfinals.