Any story lines on the 2023-24 winter sports season must include the 11-1 start by the Grossmont High School girls basketball team, 10-1 start by the El Capitan High School boys basketball team and 9-0-1 start by the Monte Vista High School boys soccer team.
Those story lines must also take into account the 15- match unbeaten streak (13-0-2) by the Granite Hills High School girls soccer team, 15-match (12-0-3) unbeaten streak by the Helix Charter High School boys soccer team and 10-match unbeaten streak (8-0-2) by the West Hills High School girls soccer team.
That’s a lot of winning, and it continued throughout the season.
That success, as well as that by other teams, was reflected in the seeding for this year’s divisional playoffs.
Hooping it up
Grossmont Hills League champion Grossmont received the No. 2 seed in the Division I girls basketball field while Grossmont Hills League run¬ner-up Mt. Miguel received the No. 2 seed in the Division IV boys basketball field.
Grossmont Hills League champion Monte Vista received the No. 3 seed in the Division III boys basketball bracket while El Cajon Valley received the No. 3 seed in the Division V boys basketball bracket.
No. 5 El Capitan received the No. 5 seed in the Division IV boys basketball field while West Hills received the No. 5 seed in the Division III girls basketball field.
Valhalla received the No. 5 seed in the Division IV girls basketball field bracket while El Capitan received the No. 6 seed in the Division II girls basketball bracket.
The contingent of local teams in the boys basketball playoffs also included No. 7 Christian (City League runner-up) and No. 11 Helix (Grossmont Valley League runner-up) in Division II, No. 9 Steele Canyon (Grossmont Valley League champion) and No. 14 Granite Hills in Division III, No. 16 Santana in Division IV and No. 10 Mountain Empire in Division V.
The contingent of local teams in the girls bas¬ketball playoffs also included No. 7 Steele Canyon, No. 8 Helix (Grossmont Hills League runner-up), No. 10 Granite Hills and No. 15 Christian in Division II, No. 16 Mt. Miguel in Division I, No. 16 Monte Vista in Division II and No. 10 Mountain Empire in Division V-AA.
Monte Vista (22-9) advanced to Tuesday’s boys semifinals following wins over Granite Hills (62-43 in the opening round) and sixth-seeded Westview (63-41 in the quarterfinals) while Mt. Miguel (21-8) also advanced to the semifinal round after eliminating 15th-seeded Sweetwater (76-57 in the opening round) and seventh-seeded Clairemont (89-69 in the quarterfinals).
El Cajon Valley (15-14) also advanced to Tuesday’s boys semifinals after defeating 11th-seeded High Tech High Mesa, 72-66, in the quarterfinals.
Grossmont (22-7) advanced to Wednesday’s girls semifinals following wins over 15th-seeded Mt. Carmel (77-34 in the opening round) and seventh-seeded San Marcos (66-26 in the quarterfinals).
Getting their kicks
Grossmont Hills League runner-up West Hills received the No. 7 seed in the elite Open Division girls soccer playoff field while Grossmont Hills League champion Monte Vista received the No. 1 seed in the Division III boys soccer playoffs.
Grossmont Hills League cham¬pion Granite Hills received the No. 2 seed in the Division II girls playoff field while El Capitan received the No. 2 seed in the Division III girls bracket while Lakeside’s River Valley Charter earned the No. 2 seed in the Division V-AA girls bracket.
Valhalla received the No. 4 seed in the Division III girls soccer playoffs while Liberty Charter received the No. 4 seed in the Division V-AA girls field.
Grossmont Valley League champion Helix secured the No. 5 seed in the Division III boys soccer playoffs while El Cajon Valley earned the No. 5 seed in the Division V boys soccer bracket.
Mountain Empire received the No. 5 seed in the Division V-AA boys soccer playoffs.
Grossmont secured the No. 7 seed in the Division III girls field while Mt. Miguel received the No. 7 seed in the Division IV girls field.
The local contingent of teams in the boys soccer playoffs also included No. 9 Steele Canyon (Grossmont Hills League runner-up) in the Division I, No. 9 Santana in Division III, No. 12 Grossmont in Division III, No. 7 Granite Hills in Division IV and No. 8 River Valley Charter and No. 12 Liberty Charter in Division V-AA.
The local contingent of teams in the girls soccer playoffs also included No. 7 Steele Canyon, No. 8 Helix and No. 11 Santana in Division II and No. 11 Foothills Christian in Division III.
Steele Canyon (9-3-8) advanced to Wednesday’s boys semifinals in upset fashion following a 5-4 kicks from the mark victory over eighth-seeded University City in the opening round and a 1-0 win over top-seeded Cathedral Catho¬lic in the quarterfinals.
Monte Vista (19-6-3) shut out Santana, 5-0, in last Friday’s quarterfinals to advance to Wednesday’s boys semifinals while seventh-seeded Granite Hills (12-11-3) scored a 4-3 overtime win over second-seeded Escondido Charter (17-2-5) last Fri¬day to advance to Tuesday’s boys semifinals.
Saturday’s quarterfinals to advance to Wednesday’s girls semifinals.
El Capitan (17-2-1) defeated 10th-seeded University City, 1-0, in Saturday’s quarterfinals to advance to Wednesday’s girls semifinals while Valhalla (13-5-2) edged fifth-seeded Pacific Ridge to advance in the top half of the semifinal bracket.
River Valley (5-0 over seventh-seeded Borrego Springs) and Liberty Charter (6-0 over fifth-seeded Vincent Memorial Catholic) both defeated lower-seeded opponents to advance to Tuesday’s Division V-AA semifinals. River Valley improved to 8-10 while Liberty Charter improved to 6-12-1 in a bid to advance to the division championship game.
By the numbers
El Capitan’s girls hoops squad came within an eye blink of advancing to this week’s semifinals — and possibly beyond.
After eliminating 11th-seeded Pacific Ridge, 62-35, in the opening round on Feb. 13, the Lakeside team traveled to Chula Vista to take on third-seeded Victory Christian Academy. The teams battled back-and-forth, with the host team holding a 39-35 lead through three quarters before the Lady Vaqueros took a one-point lead late in the game on a three-point shot.
Victory Christian countered with a basket of its own to retake the lead. The game was tied 47-all before the hosts went up by two points with 0:35 to play. The Lady Vaqs finally regained possession with less than one second remaining, but time ran out while trying to advance the ball for one final shot.
