A look ahead

What’s happening in high school playoffs in the upcoming week:

Lacrosse

* The Southern Section doesn’t conduct official playoffs for lacrosse -- or any other sport, unless 20% of its member schools participate. But that didn’t keep the lacrosse community from organizing its own playoffs, culminating in a May 9 championship game between the Orange County and the North Division boys’ champions at Mission Viejo Trabuco Hills.

In last year’s inaugural title game, Santa Ana Foothill rebounded from a five-goal deficit and held on in the closing seconds to beat Palos Verdes, 11-10, at the Home Depot Center.

The Orange County semifinals are today, with top-seeded Foothill at fourth-seeded San Juan Capistrano JSerra and second-seeded Corona del Mar hosting third-seeded San Juan Capistrano St. Margaret’s. The division final is 7 p.m. Friday at Trabuco Hills.

The Northern Division, which includes schools in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, finishes its regular season this week and will have a six-team playoff field, with the third- through sixth-seeded teams opening play Saturday and the top two seeded teams having byes into Monday’s semifinals.

Among the leading contenders for berths are Palos Verdes, Beverly Hills, Rolling Hills Estates Peninsula, West Hills Chaminade, Encino Crespi, Los Angeles Loyola, Oak Park and Palisades. The division’s championship game will be May 7 at Manhattan Beach Mira Costa.

Softball

* City Section softball teams will have their work cut out for them trying to unseat San Pedro, which has won 14 section titles, including eight of the last 10. The Pirates figure to be the No. 1-seeded team when the softball playoff pairings meeting concludes Thursday.

Woodland Hills El Camino Real and last year’s runner-up, Granada Hills Kennedy, are expected to have the best chance of beating San Pedro. But either San Pedro or El Camino Real has won each of the last 20 City titles.

First-round games will be Tuesday with the finals on May 28 at UCLA.

Volleyball

* Chatsworth’s three-game loss to defending City Section champion Granada Hills in the last week of the regular season didn’t cost it the top-seeded spot when the boys’ volleyball playoffs pairings were announced Tuesday. The Chancellors open play Thursday against visiting San Pedro.

Palisades is seeded second and Granada Hills, which beat Woodland Hills Taft in five games in last year’s championship match, is seeded third, followed by Sylmar.

Losers of first-round matches fall into the Invitational Division.

The Small Schools Division begins play Tuesday, but the top-four seeded teams -- Northridge, Elizabeth, Foshay and Los Angeles CES -- have byes. Finals in all three divisions will be held May 17 at Cal State Northridge.

The Southern Section playoff pairings will be released Monday.

Golf

* With shotgun starts sounding throughout the Southland, the Southern Section team golf divisionals will take place early next week.

On Monday, the South Coast Divisional will be held at Talega Golf Club in San Clemente beginning at 7 a.m.; the Southern at Rancho Santa Margarita’s Tijeras Creek Golf Club at 7 a.m.; the Central at the Montecito Country Club in Santa Barbara at 1 p.m.; the Eastern at Cathedral City’s Cimarron Golf Resort at 7:30 a.m.; the Western at Montebello Country Club at 8 a.m.; the Desert at the Yucaipa Valley Golf Course at 7:30 a.m., and the Northern at Ojai’s Soule Park Golf Course at 8 a.m. On Tuesday, the Central will be held at Lakewood Golf Course at 1 p.m.

The top two teams from each divisional advance to the finals May 8 at Candlewood Country Club in Whittier.

Tennis

* The City Section boys’ tennis team playoffs continue today with 1 p.m. quarterfinal matches, including top-seeded Taft hosting No. 8 Venice. Semifinals are Monday at the Balboa Tennis Center in Encino.

The Southern Section boys’ tennis team playoff pairings will be released Monday and competition begins Tuesday.

Diving

* The Southern Section boys’ and girls’ diving preliminaries and finals will take place Tuesday for Divisions I, II and III and on May 7 for Division IV.

The boys’ competition in Division I begins at 10 a.m. and the girls’ at 3 p.m. at Mission Viejo Aquatics Center. In Division II, the boys’ competition begins at 10 a.m. and the girls’ at 3 p.m. at Westlake Village Westlake. In Division III, the boys’ competition begins at 10 a.m. and the girls’ at 1:30 p.m. at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo. In Division IV, the boys’ competition begins at 10 a.m. and the girls’ at 3 p.m. on May 7 at Claremont McKenna College.