Shortly after it was released Sunday morning, we posted the full bracket for the CIF Division 2 boys’ water polo postseason—you can click here to see the full bracket.  The tournament features four Moore League schools—Wilson, who goes in as the three seed of the whole bracket, Poly, as the Moore League’s two-seed, Millikan as the third, and Lakewood who made it in as an at-large bid.

Previews of the individual games will run on the days the games are played (the first round starts Tuesday at 3:15pm) and results will be posted as soon as games end; but before we get into specifics, we wanted to pull back and take a quick, general look at the brackets, and how they break down for our local teams.

First, Wilson is certainly happy to have held onto a three-seed in the bracket.  Since they do, they’re among the eight teams who get a first-round bye, meaning they don’t play until Thursday, when they’ll host the winner of King and San Marino (likely to be King).  Because it’s a smallish bracket, one wins will put them in the quarterfinal, two in the semis, and they need just three wins to reach the championship.  The money is on them facing King, then San Clemente in the quarters, and then JSerra in the semis if they make it there.  JSerra has been ranked ahead of Wilson all year at number two, and we’re sure the Bruins are itching to get a crack at them.  A win would almost certainly mean they’d face Mater Dei in the championship, at the Woollett Aquatic Center in Irvine.  Can they get there?  They certainly have a stacked team this year, but it’s tough at the top, and they’ll be strongly tested by JSerra, and San Clemente as well.

Poly will host a first-round game against Aliso Niguel on Tuesday; with a win they’ll travel to bracket five-seed Villa Park for a very tough task.  Beyond that looms Corona/Santiago, and Mater Dei in the semis—great for the Rabbits to draw a home game, but Villa Park in the second round is rough.

Millikan will also be very happy to host a first-round game, Tuesday against a late-blooming Capistrano Valley team.  Al Reyes is trying to build a program there, and a playoff win would be a huge boost; a home match is a huge boost towards that goal.  Unfortunately, a win would force the Rams to travel to two-seed JSerra in the second round.

Lakewood is playing with house money as the at-large bid, one of six in the bracket.  Since at-larges are always seeded low on the totem pole, they’ll be the only league team who starts on the road, visiting nine-seed Dana Hills on Tuesday.  The Lancers will be considered long shots on the road against a big team like Dana Hills, but you can gamble dangerously with house money—should they pull off an upset, they’d actually have the advantage of taking over Dana Hills’ relatively easy second round match, against either Century three-seed Tustin, or JW North, the at-large bid from the Big VIII.  Of course, Mater Dei looms beyond that in the quarters.

It looks to be a fun bracket—after each round we’ll post the updated image, as well as previews of each Moore League game, and a writeup of each one as well.  It’s the playoffs—get pumped!