Once again, a road to the State Tournament will lead through Ventura. The Pirates' women's basketball team has earned the No. 3 seed in the CCCAA Southern California Regional Playoffs, and will host a regional semifinal on Saturday Feb. 29 at 7:00 pm. VC (19-7) will face off against Wednesday's winner between No. 14 Long Beach (20-8) and No. 19 Allan Hancock (13-15). Ventura earned its 10th Top-4 Seed since 2008.
The Pirates earned a top seed with a stellar non-conference season in which they started out 12-0, the program's fourth-best start ever, and achieving the No. 1-ranking in the state. Injuries, illness and other factors beset the Pirates, but they have persevered to earn the chance to play two home games to go to the state tournament. VC finished runner-up in the Western State Conference North Division, which graded out as the second-toughest conference in the region. The Pirates also had the second-best Total-Season RPI and the No. 3 Non-Conference RPI out of the 47 Southern California teams. They also had 13 wins over teams above .500, which was also second-best in SoCal.
Long Beach finished first place in the South Coast Conference South Division with a perfect 10-0 mark. They have won 12 straight games dating back to Jan. 10.
Allan Hancock, meanwhile, finished fourth in the WSC North. They split a pair of games with the Pirates this year, defeating VC 74-64 on Feb. 1 in Santa Maria before falling to the Pirates 72-53 in Ventura on Feb. 19.
Admission for Saturday's contest is set by the CCCAA. General Admission is $12.00 and $8.00 for all identified students, faculty, staff, senior citizens age 60 and over, and children less than 12 years of age. No conference, staff, or VC Pirates Ship's Crew passes can be used for entry.
The other side of the bracket will feature No. 6 Irvine Valley (24-2) hosting Mira Costa (20-5) on Friday Feb. 28.
The Regional Finals will be held on Saturday March 7 and the CCCAA State Tournament is March 13, 15-16 at West Hills College-Lemoore.