The Valley Oak League has been well represented in the Sac-Joaquin Section girls soccer playoffs in the last decade.
Since 2002, at least one VOL team has been in a section finals match nine times. Six of those titles were split between Sierra (2003-04, 2011) and Sonora (2006-08). Last year’s Division-IV championship match pitted league champion Oakdale and Sierra, which won 1-0 for its fourth section banner in seven final-round appearances.
Starting next Tuesday, the city of Manteca’s three high schools will look to continue that tradition.
The Division-IV tournament officially kicks off with tonight’s outbracket contest between Central Catholic (10-7-4) and Liberty Ranch (11-4), the third-place teams out of the Western Athletic and Sierra Valley conferences, respectively. The winner meets top-seeded East Union, which is coming off its first VOL championship run since 2001.
East Union (19-1-3) enters the postseason ranked fourth overall in the section, fifth in the state and 16th nationally by MaxPreps.com.
Standout center midfielder Regina Dias will miss the remainder of the season after tearing medial collateral and anterior cruciate ligaments in the Lancers’ final regular-season match with rival Manteca.
Fortunately for the Lancers, they are as deep and versatile as they are talented. Sophomore Isela Rivera leads the club with 29 goals and 15 assists and is arguably one of the section’s most exciting goal scorers.
Also on East Union’s end of the bracket are WAC champion Patterson (17-3-2) and SVC runner-up Cosumnes Oaks (11-4-2), who square off on Wednesday.
On the other side is second-seeded Vista del Lago of Folsom, the favorite to win the 2011 SJS Division-IV title. Sierra stunned the Eagles 2-1 in an epic semifinal victory, as the Timberwolves forced overtime with an injury-time goal.
Vista del Lago (12-2-2) will get its chance for revenge Tuesday as it again hosts Sierra (12-5-5), which graduated key players from last season’s squad but is battle tested from another challenging VOL run. The Timberwolves tied Oakdale 1-1 in their regular-season finale, and that was good enough to clinch the VOL’s No. 3 seed.
Manteca (15-6-3) may have a chance to avenge a nonleague loss to Vista in the second round having lost to the Eagles 4-1 on their turf. But first, Manteca needs to get past a hot Livingston (12-4-4) team that is 7-0-1 with eight shutouts since suffering its last defeat (2-1 to WAC foe Central Catholic) on March 19.
The key for the Buffaloes may be the health of junior striker Sammie Morris, their top goal scorer in 2010 and 2011. Morris was brought along slowly over the second half of league play after a severe ankle injury kept her sidelined for most of the season.
The semifinal round is set for Thursday, May 17, with the championship taking place on May 19 at a site yet to be determined.
