Santa Barbara High’s girls volleyball team has been seeded No. 1 in the CIF State Tournament South Regionals.
The Dons (26-11) will open competition in Division 3 on Tuesday at home against Villa Park (17-13) at 6 p.m. Villa Park was the CIF-Southern Section Division 6 runner-up, losing to Lakewood in four sets in the final. Santa Barbara was knocked out in the Division 4 semifinals by Glendora.
If Santa Barbara wins on Tuesday, it would host a quarterfinal match on Thursday against either Venice of the L.A. City Section or Steele Canyon of the CIF-San Diego Section.
The regional semifinals and final will be played at the sites of the highest seeded team on Saturday, Nov. 14 and Tuesday, Nov. 17. The State Championship Finals will be played at Santiago Canyon College in Orange on Saturday, Nov. 21
Sixteen teams are entered in the South Region. After Santa Barbara, the second through fourth seeds are all from the San Diego Section: Point Loma, Sage Creek and Helix. The other teams are Taft (L.A. City), Oceanside (San Diego), Palisades (L.A. City), La Serna (CIF-SS), Cleveland (L.A. City), El Toro (CIF-SS), Atascadero (Central Section), Westridge (CIF-SS) and Liberty (CIF-SS).
This is the second straight year Santa Barbara has played in the state tournament. Last year, the Dons were swept in the first round by Ontario Christian.
