Players and coaches from Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco gather last week after they won prestigious West Catholic Athletic League playoff title. Photo: @SHCathletics
We’re a day later than has been normal for these state rankings in order to account for Wednesday’s CIF Southern Section quarterfinals. There were no major upsets as No. 1 Mater Dei, No. 2 Redondo, No. 5 Marymount and No. 6 Sierra Canyon all advanced. We’ll also now start to look at some of Wednesday’s quarterfinal losers for CIF D1 state title possibilities. Newcomers this week, meanwhile, are La Costa Canyon, Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks, Scripps Ranch and San Juan Hills.
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(Previous rank in parentheses)
(After matches of Wednesday, Oct. 24)
1. (1) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 37-2
The Monarchs followed up their playoff-opening win against Great Oak of Temecula with a 3-0 sweep on Wednesday of state No. 12 Long Beach Poly in the CIF Southern Section Division I bracket. They meet No. 6 Sierra Canyon in Saturday’s semifinals.
2. (2) Redondo Union (Redondo Beach) 34-2
Like Mater Dei vs. Long Beach Poly, the Seahawks also won 3-0 in their CIF D1 quarterfinal match on Wednesday night. They played San Juan Hills, which was the team the knocked out previous state No. 7 Rancho Cucamonga in it previous match. Redondo faces state No. 5 Marymount in Saturday’s semifinals. All four CIFSS D1 semifinalists will be in the upcoming CIF SoCal Open Division playoffs.
3. (3) Torrey Pines (San Diego) 29-3
Up next for the Falcons is winning the CIF San Diego Section Open Division playoffs. They will start that quest after a first-round bye on Saturday against Del Norte of San Diego. Torrey Pines closed its regular season with a victory against Canyon Crest Academy, which also is an SD Open Division squad.
4. (4) Cathedral Catholic (San Diego) 26-6
Speaking of Canyon Crest, that’s the team the Dons are playing on Saturday in the CIF San Diego Section Open Division quarterfinals. Most would expect it to be a Cathedral Catholic vs. La Costa Canyon semifinal with Torrey Pines lurking as the likely other finalist.
Mikayla Lewis is the headline player for defending CIF Central Section D1 champ Central of Fresno. Photo: Mark Tennis.
5. (5) Marymount (Los Angeles) 31-8
The Sailors gave up a game, but won a 3-1 match on Wednesday in the CIFSS D1 quarterfinals against Foothill of Tustin. They are facing state No. 2 Redondo next in Saturday’s semifinals
6. (6) Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) 33-9
It wasn’t quite the 4-5 quarterfinal expected as the start of the CIFSS D1 playoffs since the other team was Temecula Valley of Temecula (upset Rancho Cucamonga), but the Trailblazers still won and continued their recent surge. Sierra Canyon will next take a crack at No. 1 Mater Dei in the quarterfinals.
7. Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) 27-6
Coming from the same home league of two-time defending CIF Open Division champion Archbishop Mitty, the Irish won this year’s West Catholic Athletic League title last week with a win against arch-rival St. Ignatius. They will now enter the CIF Central Coast Section playoffs as the top seed in the Open Division.
8. (10) Central (Fresno) 34-4
Head coach Randy Burriss’ girls got back on track last week and despite recent road loss to Buchanan of Clovis will be starting the CIF Central Section D1 playoffs as the top seed. The Grizzlies won’t play in those playoffs until the quarterfinals on Tuesday of next week.
9. (12) Marin Catholic (Kentfield) 32-3
With previous No. 7 Rancho Cucamonga and previous No. 8 Vista Murrieta both falling in the CIFSS D1 playoffs, the Wildcats get to gain back two of the five slots they lost in the rankings when they didn’t win the title at the Stockton Classic tourney two weeks ago.
10. (15) Buchanan (Clovis) 30-7
It’s time to give the Bears another big bump as they kept winning after their recent triumph over Central of Fresno and are now seen as a big threat to win the CIF Central Section D1 title (even in front of Central). Keep in mind that whichever team wins is likely going to have to be in the CIF SoCal Open Division playoffs and not in D1.
11. (18) Foothill (Tustin) 22-4
The Knights avenged one of their earlier losses with a strong outing that knocked out 2017 CIF Division I state champion Santa Margarita out of the CIFSS playoffs and then when they played state No. 5 Marymount in Wednesday’s quarterfinals were able to get a game off of the Sailors. Foothill now looks like it could be a team to watch to win that same CIF divisional state title that Santa Margarita captured last season.
12. (14) Long Beach Poly (Long Beach) 29-8
While head coach Leland McGrath and his girls lost 3-0 to No. 1 Mater Dei in Wednesday’s CIFSS D1 quarterfinals, they get to move up in this week’s rankings due to beating No. 13 Mira Costa in the previous round. Like Foothill, Poly could be another threat when the CIFSS teams are considered for CIF D1 state title potential.
13. (13) Mira Costa (Manhattan Beach) 23-10
We didn’t drop the Mustangs this week since their CIFSS D1 playoff loss was to Long Beach Poly (now ranked higher). They also have a win over a La Costa Canyon squad we were bringing back into the state rankings this week.
14. (NR) La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad) 25-9
This is a team with a lot of quality wins (one of those was against Marin Catholic) that we dropped out for two weeks after a loss to Canyon Crest Academy. All of the other wins, though, show the girls can battle with anybody and we’re now bringing them back. LCC also is the third seed for the SD Section Open Division behind Torrey Pines and Cathedral Catholic.
Deni Wilson is a powerful force in the middle for Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks. Photo: NDHS.org.
15. (20) James Logan (Union City) 29-7
Since the Colts are looking like they might be headed for one of the top seeds for the CIF NorCal Open Division based on their recent title at the Stockton Classic, we’re going to start ranking them higher over some of the SoCal teams they lost to early in the season. Logan is the top seed for the CIF North Coast Section D1 playoffs and is playing its first match on Saturday.
16. (NR) Notre Dame (Sherman Oaks) 21-8
Remember when the Knights beat Marymount in their final regular season match? They did and now their in the CIFSS D2 semifinals. Notre Dame is playing Los Alamitos on Saturday. The Griffins took out top seed Aliso Niguel (Aliso Viejo) in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
17. (NR) Scripps Ranch (San Diego) 30-5
The Falcons have piled up a lot of wins en route to getting a No. 4 seed in the CIF San Diego Section Open Division. They haven’t been on our radar too much with few out-of-section tourney appearances, but at the Redondo Power Classic they did reach the semifinals before losing to the host Seahawks.
18. (NR) San Juan Hills (SJ Capistrano) 17-8
This was a team we had hovering around the No. 10 spot early in the season and last week made some waves with a win in the CIFSS D1 playoffs over previous state No. 8 Vista Murrieta. That was followed by a loss on Wednesday this week to Redondo.
19. (19) Village Christian (Sun Valley) 33-9
A 3-2 win against Burroughs of Burbank put the Crusaders into the CIFSS D2 semifinals. With competitive equity seeding for the CIF SoCal regional playoffs, keep in mind that the divisions don’t have to match. With some of the wins it has, Village Christian can and probably will get placed into the CIF SoCal D1 bracket and not in D2.
20. (8) Vista Murrieta (Murrieta) 26-7
For this last spot this week it was going to be between two top 10 teams from the previous rankings who both lost on the road in second-round CIFSS D1 playoff matches. Vista Murrieta just has more quality wins than previous No. 7 Rancho Cucamonga.
Dropped Out:
Previous No. 7 Rancho Cucamonga; No. 11 Westlake (Westlake Village); No. 16 Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood); No. 17 Santa Margarita (Rancho SM).
On The Bubble
Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 26-6
Campolindo (Moraga) 23-7
Canyon Crest (San Diego) 20-14
Foothill (Pleasanton) 25-5
Great Oak (Temecula) 22-9
Harvard-Westlake (North Hollywood) 24-10
Lakewood 22-12
Los Alamitos 22-13
Los Altos 26-7-1
Palo Alto 23-4
Ponderosa (Shingle Springs) 29-2
Rancho Cucamonga 26-6
Santa Fe Christian (Solana Beach) 21-11
Santa Margarita (Rancho SM) 21-13
St. Francis (Sacramento) 30-4
St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 25-13
St. Joseph (Lakewood) 28-7
Temecula Valley (Temecula) 18-10
Trabuco Hills (Mission Hills) 27-11
Westlake (Westlake Village) 34-2
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
2 Comments
You have # 11 Foothill listed as getting a game off of Sierra Canyon.
Please check. Sierra Canyon didnt play Foothill. Marymount did.
Please fact check before you post.
We do fact check but with hundreds of scores and teams in multiple sports there’s going to be a mistake once in a while. This one has been fixed. Thanks.