Sports Notes: Prep football playoff brackets released for SLO County teams

Local high school football teams learned of their first-round playoff matchups this week when the CIF-Southern Section released its brackets for each division. Paso Robles, winner of the PAC 5 title, and Nipomo, second place in the Northern League, will both have home games when the first round kicks off Friday. Here’s a look at the full schedule for area teams:

Division 2: Arroyo Grande at Oaks Christian

Division 3: Camarillo at Lompoc

Division 4: Damien at Paso Robles

Division 5: Harvard-Westlake at St. Joseph

Division 6: Golden Valley at Nipomo

Division 8: Righetti at Antelope Valley

Division 12: Carpinteria at Santa Maria

For a complete preview of Friday’s games, visit sanluisobispo.com/sports on Thursday or check Friday’s Sports section.

Mission Prep baseball star commits to Cal

Mission Prep junior Dylan Beavers gave a verbal commitment Sunday to play baseball at Cal.

Beavers, who’s listed at 6-foot-3 and 180 pounds, was a standout on the struggling Royals baseball team last season. He batted .360 and had four home runs, but it doesn’t look like Cal wants him for his bat.

Though Beavers threw just four innings as a sophomore last season, he’s reportedly been throwing 92 mph from the mound recently pitching for his club team.

Girls Volleyball Season Wraps Up

The No. 2-seeded Templeton High School girls volleyball team lost to Ontario Christian in the quarterfinals of the CIF-Southern Section playoffs (25-23, 25-21, 25-21) Saturday, ending the deepest run by any team in SLO County. Templeton (25-5, 14-0 Los Padres) beat Whittier (3-0) and Schurr (3-2) before falling in the quarterfinals. The Los Padres League champions should be dangerous again next year with their top three attackers and setter coming back next season.

PAC 8 champs Arroyo Grande (23-5, 14-0 PAC 8) ended its season Thursday, falling to Yorba Linda in five sets in the second round of the Division 3 playoffs.

After beating El Monte in the first round, Los Padres League runner-ups Morro Bay (18-13, 10-4 Los Padres) lost in the second round of the Division 7 playoffs Thursday to The Archer School for Girls.

Arroyo Grande Girls Tennis Falls in Playoffs

The Arroyo Grande High School girls tennis team lost just its second match of the season Friday in the second round of the team playoffs (16-2) against powerhouse Corona Del Mar, the the No. 1 seed in Division 1. The back-to-back PAC 8 champion finished the season with a 21-2 record after beating San Marcos in the first round.

Atascadero, led by PAC 8 doubles champions Nicoline and Anneline Breytenbach, also lost in the second round of the Division 3 playoffs Friday to top-seeded Crescenta Valley.

The tennis season isn’t quite over yet. Those who qualified for the postseason in singles will begin play Nov. 20.

XC Begins Postseason

The cross country Southern Section Prelims will take place this weekend in Riverside as runners begin the road to the State Meet. SLO County has six teams ranked in the Top 13 across the boys and girls divisions that will compete Saturday.

The top two boys programs from SLO County — five-time county champion Paso Robles (No. 5-ranked) and Arroyo Grande (No. 6-ranked) will compete in the Division 2 race on Saturday. SLO High (No. 3) and Atascadero (No. 13) will compete in the Division 4 race.

On the girls side, No. 8 ranked SLO High and No. 11 Atascadero will compete in the Division 4 race.

The Top 26 schools will advance to the CIF-Southern Section Finals the following weekend.

Cal Poly

Volleyball On The Verge

With four games to go, the No. 22-ranked Cal Poly women’s volleyball team needs just two more wins to capture at least a share of the Big West title and earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. If Cal Poly can pull it off, it would be the Mustangs first title since 2007. Cal Poly (22-2, 12-0 Big West) will go for its 18th straight win Friday against UC Davis and follow that with a Saturday match against UC Irvine in its final home game of the season.

Basketball Begins

The Cal Poly men’s and women’s basketball teams begin their 2017-18 seasons Friday night. The women’s team will be on the road at San Francisco at 6 p.m., while the men’s team visits Stanford for a 4 p.m. tipoff. The men’s team will then play Cal on Sunday before returning to play its first home game against Holy Names on Nov. 15. The women’s team will play its first home game Nov. 16 against Grand Canyon.

Baseball Schedule Released

Cal Poly released its 2018 baseball schedule Monday. The Mustangs will face a total of 16 2017 NCAA Regional participants and have four games against PAC-12 teams during the 57-game schedule. Cal Poly will open against Gonzaga at the Surprise (Ariz.) Tournament on Feb. 16 and host its first three-game home series against Pacific on March 2.

Other Notes

Patrick Laird Named Burlsworth Trophy Semifinalist

Cal running back and Mission Prep graduate Patrick Laird was named a semifinalist for the Burlsworth Trophy, an award given to the nation’s most outstanding college football player who began his career as a walk on. Laird, who walked on at Cal before receiving a scholarship before this season, is enjoying a breakout season. After a career performance against Oregon State on Saturday (33 carries for 214 yards and a touchdown), the redshirt junior has now rushed for 796 yards and seven touchdowns to go along with 245 yards and a receiving touchdown this season.

The Burlsworth Trophy is named after Brandon Burlsworth, a former walk-on at Arkansas who went on to become an All-American offensive lineman and was selected by the Indianapolis Colts in 1999. He was killed in a car crash 11 days after the draft.

Past winners include Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield (two-time winner) and Wisconsin wide receiver Jared Abbrederis.

This story was originally published November 7, 2017 at 3:49 PM with the headline "Sports Notes: Prep football playoff brackets released for SLO County teams."