We’re back: State Girls VB Top 20

One player that came to a magazine cover shoot for Cal-Hi Sports when she was in high school was Kerri Walsh from Archbishop Mitty of San Jose. We’re pretty sure most of you know what she’s done in the Olympic Games. Photo: Courtesy Student Sports.

It’s been more than 10 years since we’ve done any kind of girls volleyball state rankings, but we’ll be doing them this season and debut with Los Alamitos and Valley Christian of San Jose in the No. 1 and No. 2 positions.

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Since our Stockton office is directing the return of the Student Sports FAB 50 national rankings for girls volleyball this season (after a one-year hiatus due to the shutdown of ESPNHS), it only makes sense for us to also post the CalHiSports.com Top 20 for the state.

If you don’t know much about volleyball, lesson No. 1 is that California is still one of the top states (and arguably the best) in the nation. Therefore, all of the teams we’ll be following for the state naturally will fall in line as it relates to the nation.

We’ll never pretend to approach the expertise and knowledge of former colleague John Tawa of PrepVolleyball.com and in fact we encourage all to sign up and subscribe to his premium content. But we will do rankings for the sport and we may offer an all-state team (still to be determined) because we know how to do rankings and have a history of following the sport as compilers of the state record book that dates back to when Stanford coach John Dunning was winning CIF state titles in the early 1980s at Fremont of Sunnyvale.

And yes, cover stories and cover shoots from our old magazines were done on some of the greatest players ever, including Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor.

For these first rankings, the key was to realize that the CIF Southern Section coaches polls may be released on a Monday, but they often don’t reflect results from the previous weekend.

Watch highlights of the Bay Area’s best teams every Sunday at 7 p.m. on KOFY, Channel 20, San Francisco.

For the record, Archbishop Mitty of San Jose (38-0) is going to be listed in the state record book we do as the 2012 State Team of the Year. The Monarchs may not repeat this season since they lost last weekend in the semifinals of the Milpitas Spikefest tournament. That tournament was won by Valley Christian of San Jose, which also was the preseason No. 1 team by the San Jose Mercury-News (nice call, Darren Sabedra).

We are not including results from the Ann Kang Invitational in Hawaii toward the team records, but each team’s finish in that tournament was used as part of the criteria.

We’re also very glad we waited until the Monday night championship of the Gahr Molten Classic was concluded. At the Molten Classic, Los Alamitos knocked off Lakewood in a championship match that featured the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the CIF Southern Section Division I coaches’ poll. Los Al was No. 2 and is an easy choice to be No. 1 in the state heading into the next big weekend.

Each week, look for the new CalHiSports.com Top 20 for girls volleyball. We’ll also be posting a top 10 for the San Francisco Bay Area as part of a package we do for the Cal-Hi Sports Bay Area TV show.

CalHiSports.com Top 20
State Girls Volleyball Rankings

(First rankings of the season; through reported results of Monday night, Sept. 9)

1. Los Alamitos 5-0

Feature stories on many of the top players from top teams in Northern California will appear in SportStars Magazine.

2. Valley Christian (San Jose) 4-0

3. Torrey Pines (San Diego) 1-0

4. Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) 4-1

5. Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 4-1

6. Lakewood 4-1

7. Mater Dei (Santa Ana) 1-0

8. Redondo Union (Redondo Beach) 0-1

9. Mira Costa (Manhattan Beach) 0-0

10. Huntington Beach 4-1

11. Corona del Mar (Newport Beach) 1-0

12. Homestead (Cupertino) 1-0

13. Dana Hills (Dana Point) 0-0

14. Granite Bay 2-0

15. Francis Parker (San Diego) 0-1

16. Marymount (Los Angeles) 0-1

17. Long Beach Poly (Long Beach) 1-0

18. Monte Vista (Danville) 7-0

19. Clovis West (Fresno) 5-1

20. Lutheran (Orange) 2-0

S.F. BAY AREA TOP 10
1. Valley Christian (San Jose) 4-0
2. Sacred Heart Cathedral (San Francisco) 4-1
3. Archbishop Mitty (San Jose) 4-1
4. Homestead (Cupertino) 1-0
5. Monte Vista (Danville) 7-0
6. Palo Alto 5-1
7. Presentation (San Jose) 4-3
8. Bishop O’Dowd (Oakland) 0-0
9. Sacred Heart Prep (Atherton) 2-0
10. Carondelet (Concord) 5-1

Note: As the rankings continue to get done each week, we’ll also add player highlights and comments to each team. We welcome all input about teams not included and the order although we tend not to change it if teams don’t lose. For comments or questions, email markjtennis@gmail.com.

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