Sailors given road date

Being the No. 3 seed in the eight-team Southern California Regional playoff bracket wasn’t enough to earn the Newport Harbor High girls’ volleyball team a home match.

Instead, the Sailors (29-6) will open Division I play at No. 8-seeded Granada Hills (23-3) tonight at 7.

Corona del Mar (28-6), opens Division II play on the road. The No. 6-seeded Sea Kings will visit No. 2-seeded Ramona in San Diego County tonight at 7.

Newport Harbor, which defeated Los Alamitos in four games to claim the CIF Southern Section Division I-AA crown Saturday at Cypress College, was denied a home match, because it was not the top-seeded team from the Southern Section, a CIF state spokesman said.

Dos Pueblos (30-2), the Southern Section Division I-A champion, earned that honor, as well as a first-round home match against Los Alamitos. Dos Pueblos is the top-seeded team in the Southern California Division I bracket.

And because Granada Hills is the lone Division I champion from the Los Angeles City Section, it was assured a home match.

Should Newport Harbor prevail tonight, it would likely play on the road Saturday against No. 2-seeded La Costa Canyon, the San Diego section winner, in the regional semifinals.

The regional finals arescheduled Dec. 1, with the state championship matches set for Dec. 5 at UC Irvine’s Bren Events Center.

CdM, which lost in four games to Redlands East Valley in Saturday’s Southern Section Division II-AA final, will meet either No. 3-seeded Elsinor or No. 8-seeded Taft, should it advance to Saturday’s regional semis.

Redlands East Valley (31-3), the three-time-defending section champion, is the No. 1 seed in the Southern California Division II bracket.

Newport Harbor is led by USC-bound senior Kirby Burnham, a 6-foot-2 outside hitter, as well as 6-1 senior middle blocker Katey Thompson, 6-1 junior outside hitter Maddy Brown and senior libero Kelly Heenan.

CdM is paced by senior setter Madie Smith, bound for the University of San Diego, 6-1 junior opposite Morgan Boukather, and Brown-bound senior Amanda Nickel, a 5-11 middle blocker.

— Steve Virgen contributed to this story