Central Section High School playoff brackets are unveiled

With this week’s league championships in their rear-view mirror, area high school tennis players are ready to make quite a racket with their collective racquets.

It all starts Tuesday when the Central Section team playoffs start, with the area and section individual tournament on the horizon the next two weeks.

Fifteen Kern County teams will be in action for opening-round matches, with three earning byes into Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Two-time defending section champion Bakersfield Christian will defend its Division-II title as the top seed and will play the winner of No. 9 Frontier at No. 8 Reedley-Immanuel at home on Thursday.

Liberty also earned a first-round bye with the No. 4 seed in Division I, with No. 3 Arvin skipping Tuesday’s opener in Division V.

Four teams will compete in Division I. With the exception of the Patriots, who will host the winner of No. 12 Fresno-Bullard at No. 5 Clovis West, the remaining three teams will play on the road on Tuesday.

No. 9 Bakersfield plays No. 8 Visalia-Redwood, No. 10 Stockdale is at No. 7 Sanger and No. 11 Garces travels to No. 6 San Luis Obispo.

Seven area teams will play at home in the first round.

No. 7 Centennial hosts No. 10 Templeton in Division II, with No. 4 Wasco, No. 5 Independence, No. 6 Golden Valley and No. 7 West playing at home in Division III.

The Tigers play No. 13 Tulare Union, the Falcons will face No. 12 Lemoore, the Bulldogs play No. 11 Visalia-El Diamante and the Vikings host No. 10 Reedley.

In Division IV, No. 10 Kennedy, No. 11 East and No. 14 Delano will all travel on Tuesday. The Thunderbirds play No. 7 Madera South, The Blades face No. 6 Fresno and the Tigers will meet No. 3 Coalinga.

In Division V, the Bears will play the winner of Tuesday’s opener between No. 11 Taft and host No. 6 Foothill. No. 12 Nipomo will play at No. 5 Mira Monte, with

No. 10 Chavez traveling to No. 7 Strathmore.