The Culver City girls’ soccer and basketball teams start their playoff season today at 3 p.m. and Saturday at 7 p.m. The soccer team will travel to La Mirada today and the basketball team will host the first round of the CIF playoffs Saturday against Quartz Hill inside the Del Goodyear gym.
The girls’ water polo team won their first round Division 6 playoff game when they beat Tahquitz High School of Hemet, 18-7. Their next game is on the road today against the Cypress Centurions, winners of the Empire League.
The girls’ soccer team finished the regular season with a record of 12-7-2 and 6-4 in the Ocean League, which was good enough for third place in league play. When they travel to La Mirada today for their CIF Division 4 showdown, they will be facing one of the best teams in Southern California. The Matadores are 21-2 and 12-0 in Suburban League play.
The Centaurs are led by sophomore sensation Amanda Jaramillo who has scored 16 goals while dishing out 11 assists. Other Centaurs to watch are Melissa Ramirez, Ashley Dorsey, Isabella Avincola, Isabel Deharo, Jasmine Flores and Jasmine Herrera.
“The players are getting over some injuries and are healthy and seem to be peaking at the right time,” said head coach Scott Mair last week.
The girls’ basketball team finished the regular season with an overall record of 17-9 and a prefect 10-0 mark in the Ocean League. This was the fourth straight year the Centaurs have been undefeated in league play and they are the defending CIF 3AA champions under head coach Julian Anderson.
Due to the team’s past success, the Centaurs were moved up to a more competitive 1AA division this year. That division is the second-highest level in the CIF girls’ playoffs.
“This is the first time since I have been at Culver City that we have been place in one of the top divisions,” said Anderson this week. This is his fifth season as the Centaurs’ coach. Regardless of what division they are playing in Anderson thinks his team is ready for the challenge.
“We have most of our players back from injuries so we feel confident going into the playoffs,” Anderson said. “We know that all of the teams in Division 1AA are well coached and they face very competitive teams so we are expecting Quartz Hill to be ready to play.”
Culver City is led by Kailey Tooke, Katie Lin, Lindsey Tanita and Gwendolyn Machado.