FAMILIAR FOES—Royal High’s Kyle Matthews, left, and Alan Rovira of Simi Valley battle for a free ball during a regular-season Marmonte League match. The rivals split the league crown. IRIS SMOOT/Acorn Newspapers Area teams are in the thick of the playoff action.

The Royal High girls’ soccer team, which shared the Marmonte League championship with Westlake, won a coin flip to secure the top seed out of the league.

As a reward, the Highlanders (10-11-5 overall) are scheduled to open the CIF-Southern Section Division 1 playoffs at home today at 3 p.m. against Lakewood.

Simi Valley (14-4-5), which fell one point behind Royal in the standings, will play at Los Alamitos today at 3 p.m.

Grace Brethren, which went 13-6-3 and nabbed third in the Frontier League, will play a Division 6 playoff opener at 3 p.m. today at Woodcrest Christian.

Royal’s wrestling team, which won its seventh straight league championship, finished second in the Division 2 team duals last weekend at Canyon Springs High in Moreno Valley.

The Highlander grapplers defeated Canyon Springs, St. John Bosco and West Covina for the runner-up finish, the school’s best in Division 2.

Top Marmonte wrestlers, including those from Royal and Simi Valley, will compete today and Saturday at the section individual tournament at Chaparral High in Temecula.

Girls’ water polo, girls’ basketball and boys’ soccer teams played games on Thursday.

After the Royal girls’ water polo team defeated El Dorado 1411 in overtime on Tuesday, the Highlanders earned a date with top-seeded Laguna in the Division 2 tournament.

The Highlander girls’ basketball squad, which finished second in the Marmonte to Agoura, played host to Channel Islands on Thursday.

Simi Valley and Royal, who shared the Marmonte boys’ soccer crown after settling for a tie against each other in the regularseason finale, also played home games Thursday.

The Pioneers met Rancho Cucamonga while the Highlanders battled Harvard-Westlake.

Grace Brethren’s boys’ soccer squad played host to Mary Star of the Sea on Thursday.

Results for Thursday’s games were unavailable at press time. — Eliav Appelbaum