NEW Girls VB State Top 20

The Central of Fresno girls volleyball team has been dominant in the CIF Central Section so far and hopes to make breakthrough in upcoming regional playoffs. Photo: Mark Tennis.


Redondo wins its own tourney, but Mater Dei gets an avenging win over Marymount (sort of) and returns to the No. 1 ranking. Cathedral Catholic also wins SoCal Invitational and moves up to No. 4. In other moves, Vista Murrieta gets a jump into the top 10 for making tourney final and Santa Margarita of Rancho SM is lone newcomer.

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(Previous rank in parentheses)
(After matches of Tuesday, Oct. 9)

1. (2) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 34-2
We did our home page ticker this week at first on Monday night without getting into the details, but realized on Tuesday morning that the Monarchs have to return to the top ranking. They avenged one of their two losses to Marymount of Los Angeles in a non-league match last week and that also puts their head-to-head win over previous No. 1 Redondo back into more of a focus. Plus, the CIF Southern Section also has switched to MD at the top of its ranking, meaning that the Monarchs are now in line to be the top seed for the CIFSS Division I playoffs.

Jasmine Davis is one of the top two-sport girls athletes in California. She also stars in basketball and hopes to add a CIF Open Division state title in volleyball this season to the D2 girls hoops title her team won last March. Photo: redondoathletics.com.


2. (1) Redondo Union (Redondo Beach) 30-2
It wasn’t a who’s who of volleyball powers like there is at the Nike TOC or Durango Fall Classic, but the Seahawks took care of business against a field that included several state-ranked squads in winning their own Redondo Power Classic last weekend. Tourney MVP Jasmine Davis played strong in the middle in every match. Super sophomore Kami Miner shined in the title match vs. Long Beach Poly with 14 kills and 13 assists.

3. (4) Torrey Pines (San Diego) 26-3
The Falcons weren’t in a tourney last weekend but they did have to face one of the other top three ranked teams from the CIF San Diego Section and defeated previous state No. 10 La Costa Canyon of Carlsbad. Barring a big upset, we’d expect Torrey Pines and Cathedral Catholic to be playing each other for the SD Open Division title and then both teams going to the CIF SoCal Open Division with the winner possibly being seeded third and the loser fourth or fifth depending on which CIFSS third team is in the mix.

4. (5) Cathedral Catholic (San Diego) 23-6
With head coach Juliana Evans participating in a marathon, the Dons still impressed in winning last weekend’s SoCal Invitational title. They topped Vista Murrieta in the final 25-21, 25-14. MVP Maddie Endsley, the 6-foot-3 junior who often played against Vista Murrieta when she was at her previous school of Temecula Valley, had 11 kills in that match. With Endsley playing (she was ineligible due to the transfer early in the season) along with 6-foot-3 Notre Dame commit Lindsey Miller (injured earlier in the season), there’s no doubt that at full strength this is a team that could be a major contender for the CIF Open Division state title.

5. (3) Marymount (Los Angeles) 27-7
Speaking of full strength, the Sailors didn’t have USA beach standout and All-American candidate Devon Newberry when they lost last week to Mater Dei. With her, it’s still clearly one of the state’s top five teams and looks like a top three seed for the CIFSS D1 playoffs.

6. (6) Central (Fresno) 32-3
Head coach Randy Burriss’ squad still has one more league match to play against state No. 17 Buchanan. It’s not expected that the Grizzlies are going to lose through the CIF Central Section D1 playoffs and because of their high ranking it’s also fairly certain they will be in the CIF SoCal Open Division. Central probably isn’t going to get a home match either with the two likely San Diego Section finalists (Torrey Pines & Cathedral Catholic) and the top three in the CIFSS (Mater Dei, Redondo, Marymount) also showing what they can do. None of that is fair, but we will never believe the CIF is ever going to pick more than four CIFSS teams to an Open Division until they actually do.

7. (7) Marin Catholic (Kentfield) 24-2
No change for the Wildcats, who are in cruise control until the CIF North Coast Section playoffs. With Archbishop Mitty so far down this season and no other NorCal teams looking like Palo Alto or Granite Bay from years past, this is a season in which there are so many more elite level squads in the south compared to the north.

8. (8) Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) 25-5
The Fighting Irish continue to be the class of the West Catholic Athletic League. They won last week in a match against arch-rival St. Ignatius and on Tuesday topped St. Francis of Mountain View. Funny things can happen, however, in the CIF Central Coast Section Open Division playoffs.

9. (9) Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) 30-9
Our 2017 State Coach of the Year, Stefanie Wigfall, has the Trailblazers playing well as the playoffs are beckoning. They won on Monday night in a league match vs. Campbell Hall of North Hollywood.

10. (16) Vista Murrieta (Murrieta) 24-5-1
The Broncos were in the top 10 earlier in the season and this week it’s time to get them back up there after they reached the final match of the SoCal Invitational tourney. They beat league rival Great Oak in that tourney and then already this week beat the Wolf Pack again in a Southwestern League match.

11. (11) Westlake (Westlake Village) 33-1
Instead of going to either the Redondo Power Classic or SoCal Invitational, the Warriors stayed close to home and won their own tournament with a 2-0 win in the final over West Ranch of Valencia. They have now won 33 straight matches, but it’s still hard to determine where they stand compared to a lot of other highly ranked squads.

12. (12) Rancho Cucamonga 26-5
After making a big jump in last week’s rankings, the Cougars settled back into Baseline League play and have added wins against Los Osos of Rancho Cucamonga and Upland. Their last loss was to national power Walton of Georgia.

Rancho Cucamonga’s team placed 12th at the national level Durango Fall Classic. Photo: @sports_rchs.

13. (10) La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad) 23-8
There were three losses that this team took since the last rankings, but two of them were at the SoCal Invitational to Cathedral Catholic and Northwest Christian of Arizona. The other one was to Torrey Pines in an Avocado League match.

14. (13) Mira Costa (Manhattan Beach) 22-8
Head coach Cam Green’s club has one more match against Redondo in the Bay League. That match will be Wednesday of this week. Redondo won 3-1 in the two rivals’ first meeting.

15. (18) Long Beach Poly (Long Beach) 26-6
We wish we could give the Jackrabbits even more of a bump after they were runner-up to No. 2 Redondo at the Redondo Power Classic and then on Tuesday of this week they recorded a 3-0 sweep against Moore League rival Lakewood. Those two perennial powers often split their league matchups. Not this time. Poly has won both.

16. (14) St. Francis (Sacramento) 25-3
The Troubadours were written up last week as if they won the Oak Ridge tourney when in fact that tourney title was won by James Logan of Union City. They didn’t lose to James Logan, though, and still have a pretty impressive overall resume as the top-ranked team in the CIF Sac-Joaquin Section.

17. (19) Buchanan (Clovis) 27-7
After sweeping Clovis West on Tuesday night, that should give the Bears some momentum heading into their match Thursday against No. 6 Central of Fresno.

18. (20) Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood) 23-9
Coach Hayley Blanchard’s girls had a tough trip on Tuesday to play at Flintridge Sacred Heart and came home with a 25-23, 25-23, 25-16 triumph.

19. (15) Village Christian (Sun Valley) 27-9
This is another team that played in the SoCal Invitational. The two losses were to La Costa Canyon and Northwest Christian of Arizona and there are still plenty of quality wins to keep the Crusaders in the State Top 20.

20. (NR) Santa Margarita (Rancho SM) 20-12
We were going to put in St. Ignatius of San Francisco for getting a win over previous No. 17 Great Oak, but the Wildcats lost on Tuesday night 3-2 to Archbishop Mitty. Instead, it’s the Eagles. They’re recent losses have all been to teams they are lower than in the rankings, and they have some quality wins, such as those over James Logan (Union City), Foothill (Tustin), San Juan Hills, Lakewood and Sacred Heart (Louisville, Ky.).

Dropped Out:
Previous No. 17 Great Oak (Temecula).

On The Bubble
Aliso Niguel (Aliso Viejo) 14-5
Corona del Mar (Newport Beach) 23-11
Bishop’s (La Jolla) 18-7-1
Foothill (Pleasanton) 21-5
Foothill (Tustin) 21-5
Great Oak (Temecula) 22-8
James Logan (Union City) 21-7
La Jolla Country Day 18-12
Lakewood 22-11
Murrieta Valley (Murrieta) 14-10
Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks 17-8
Palo Alto 16-3
Ponderosa (Shingle Springs) 25-2
San Juan Hills (SJ Capistrano) 16-7
Santa Margarita (Rancho SM) 20-12
St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 23-11
Temecula Valley (Temecula) 15-9

Mark Tennis is the co-founder and publisher of CalHiSports.com. He can be reached at markjtennis@gmail.com. Don’t forget to follow Mark on the Cal-Hi Sports Twitter handle: @CalHiSports


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