Although they just lost in hard-fought match to Archbishop Mitty at the Stockton Classic, the girls from Sacred Heart Cathedral of San Francisco were not that disappointed. They were still second in perhaps the best one-day tourney in Northern California and were just three points away from upsetting the Monarchs. Photo: Mark Tennis.
Results from the Stockton Classic and SoCal Invitational don’t cause any changes at the top, but do create a lot of movement from No. 13 and downward. That’s how both Sacred Heart Cathedral and Canyon Crest Academy earned their new rankings, although one has already lost this week. The CIF state office also confirmed last week in a call that it will be looking at our rankings just as closely as any computer ranking when seeding the teams for this year’s regional brackets and for choosing teams for the first Open Division.
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(Through games of Tuesday, Oct. 18)
(Previous ranking in parentheses)
1. (1) Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 26-3
After winning the Stockton Classic’s top division last Saturday with a win over league rival Sacred Heart Cathedral, the Monarchs already have a win this week against Presentation. Head coach Bret Almazan-Cezar was great to talk to as usual at the tournament and knows how wide open the race for the first CIF Open Division state title will be. “Good luck to you guys who do rankings because no one team has two great players,” he said. “At least we’ll know at the end because we’ll all be in the Open Division.”
2. (2) Santa Margarita (Rancho SM) 27-4
With their two recent wins over a Mater Dei team that has a win over Mitty, sure a case can be made that the Eagles have done enough to be in front of Mitty despite the head-to-head loss. We’ll stick with our order for now. Santa Margarita stays put after league wins vs. JSerra and Rosary.
3. (3) Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 28-4
After a 3-1 win over Mira Costa of Manhattan Beach last Wednesday, the Monarchs had a pair of straight set wins as they defeated Rosary Academy of Fullerton and JSerra Catholic of San Juan Capistrano. Shannon Scully led the attack with 16 kills as two of the three sets against the Lions needed extra points to decide a winner. Sophomore Mandalay Rennon led the team with 16 digs while Kelsey Campeau had 14 digs. On Thursday, they will get a chance to avenge their most recent loss when they take on Santa Margarita of Rancho Santa Margarita before ending the regular season at Orange Lutheran.
4. (4) Marymount (Los Angeles) 26-4
The Sailors have taken control in one of the tougher leagues in Southern California. They won twice last week and stay No. 4 in the state with their only two in-state losses having come to No. 2 Santa Margarita.
Julia Devine is a 6-foot-2 junior middle blocker for No. 1 Mitty. Photo: Mark Tennis.
5. (8) Edison (Huntington Beach) 27-7
Their winning streak now stands at six matches after a pair of wins last week, which included a five-set win at Huntington Beach to avenge their most recent loss. Despite being without outside hitter Hannah Phair and dropping the first set, the Chargers took sets 2, 3 and 5 in the win over the Oilers as Cassidy Dennison had 16 kills. Middle blocker Kristin Austin added 15 kills on the night while Lindsey Sparks had 48 assists and eight kills. With two games remaining in the regular season, Edison will likely finish tied for first in the Sunset League with the Oilers.
6. (5) Mira Costa (Manhattan Beach) 22-6
The Mustangs certainly don’t drop far when their loss last week was to No. 3 Mater Dei. They didn’t get swept in that best-of-five match, either.
7. (7) Huntington Beach 23-4
Losing to Edison ends up not costing the Oilers a spot in the rankings due to previous No. 8 and previous No. 9 teams also losing. It had been over a month since the Oilers were on the losing side of a match as their 12-match winning streak came to an end with a five set loss to the Chargers.
8. (10) Lakewood 27-4
The Lancers followed up their strong showing at the California Challenge that was played in San Diego with a pair of Moore League wins, including one over state-ranked bubble team Long Beach Poly. They were only able to move up one spot last week but this week they get two more positions.
9. (11) San Juan Hills (SJ Capistrano) 22-2
Two weeks ago, the Stallions were sitting at No. 4 with their only loss to Mater Dei. They get two of the spots they lost last week back after league wins vs. Aliso Niguel and Trabuco Hills.
10. (12) Torrey Pines (San Diego) 21-3
Wins over Sage Creek, San Dieguito Academy and Carlsbad help the Falcons move up this week. They’re still behind the Lakewood team they lost to two weeks ago at the California Challenge.
11. (6) Notre Dame (Belmont) 25-8
Despite loss to Sacred Heart Cathedral at the Stockton Classic, we’d still have the Tigers at No. 2 in NorCal but dropping this week behind some SoCal teams. They did get a win over state-ranked Oak Ridge in Stockton and still have those two high finishes at national tourneys on their resume.
12. (9) St. Ignatius (San Francisco) 26-6
One of the two losses that the Wildcats had last week was to Mitty. The other was an upset to Redwood of Larkspur at the Stockton Classic. They came back later in the day to beat previous state-ranked Valley Christian.
13. (15) La Costa Canyon (Carlsbad) 17-6
After losing to San Diego No. 1 Torrey Pines, the Mavericks responded by defeating both San Dieguito Academy of Encinitas and Canyon Crest Academy of San Diego. The Canyon Crest win was huge because the Ravens had just won the Gold Division title at the SoCal Invitational. Every single set during that five-set win over the Ravens was decided by two points with each of the first four sets going to extra points. Jamie McQuarrie had a team-high 21 kills while sophomore Morgan Lewis added 17 kills.
14. (17) Redondo Union (Redondo Beach) 14-10
This is a week when playing all of those highly ranked opponents and doing well in some of them helps in the rankings. After the top 12 last week, just about everyone other than the Seahawks and La Costa Canyon all suffered losses.
15. (14) Ventura 26-2
Although the Cougars fell from the ranks of the unbeaten, they still made it to the title game at the SoCal Invitational. They also had a win in that event over Perry of Chandler, Ariz., which has been nationally ranked this season.
16. (NR) Sacred Heart Cathedral (SF) 19-6
Since they pushed No. 1 Mitty to the brink of a loss in the title game of the top division at the Stockton Classic, the Irish get some love in this week’s rankings. As we’re writing this, though, they’re getting ready to play Valley Christian of San Jose. And before doing well in Stockton, SHC had a loss last week to St. Francis. With a limit of four from the West Catholic Athletic League that can be in the CCS Open Division and then a limit of four from the CCS that can be in the NorCal Open Division, Mitty’s Bret Almazan-Cazar says the joke among WCAL coaches in that whichever team ends up fifth in the league is going to win a CIF state title.
17. (NR) Christian Brothers (Sacramento) 20-5
Beating previous No. 13 Oak Ridge and previous No. 18 Valley Christian at the Stockton Classic helps the Falcons go up in this week’s rankings. Some of their losses are to lower-ranked teams, but at this point you can say that about just about everyone and especially for the teams that are in the 16 to 20 range.
18. (13) Oak Ridge (El Dorado Hills) 26-6
The Trojans stay in the State Top 20, but for this week anyway are falling behind the Christian Brothers of Sacramento team they lost to at the Stockton Classic. Oak Ridge’s other loss in that event was to higher-ranked Notre Dame of Belmont.
19. (20) Los Alamitos 16-15
The regular season for the Griffins will end next week against Fountain Valley, but on Thursday this week they are facing new No. 5 Edison. While they haven’t had much success against either Edison or Huntington Beach (same league), we don’t think too many other teams in the state would, either.
20. (NR) Canyon Crest Academy (San Diego) 16-8
Despite losing in five sets to La Costa Canyon of Carlsbad earlier this week, the Ravens move into the rankings after winning the Gold Division championship at the SoCal Invitational with a sweep over Ventura in the finals. The Ravens also dropped a match in pool play at the SoCal Invitational, otherwise they might have moved up even higher.
Dropped Out:
Previous No. 16 Santa Fe Christian (Solana Beach), No. 18 Valley Christian (San Jose), No. 19 Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth).
TEAMS ON THE BUBBLE
(Some results of bubble teams that played on Tuesday of this week not reported)
Campolindo (Moraga) 20-8
Buchanan (Clovis) 24-5
Clovis 32-6
Eastlake (Chula Vista) 18-7
Foothill (Pleasanton) 23-4
Harvard-Westlake (N. Hollywood) 12-9
Long Beach Poly (Long Beach) 15-6
Marin Catholic (Kentfield) 21-6
Menlo-Atherton (Atherton) 18-4
Rancho Cucamonga 19-7
Santa Fe Christian (Solana Beach) 23-7
Sierra Canyon (Chatsworth) 24-3
St. Francis (Mountain View) 19-9
Temecula Valley (Temecula) 22-4
Tracy 31-3
Valley Christian (San Jose) 16-11
Westridge (Pasadena) 21-4
Stockton office assistant editor Paul Muyskens and SportStars Magazine editor Chace Bryson contributed to these rankings. 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
