SBLive California girls volleyball Top 20 rankings: Big teams, big tourney wins

Three top-five teams win tourneys; Clovis East and Monte Vista-Danville join rankings

Cathedral Catholic-San Diego, Mira Costa-Manhattan Beach and St. Francis-Mountain View, all in the top five, won tournaments last weekend and the upper half of the SBLive Top 20 rankings stayed fairly stable. 

But there were big developments in the North Coast Section’s East Bay Athletic Athletic League and the Central Section’s Tri-Valley League. 

Check the second 10 for some new faces: Clovis East-Clovis and Monte Vista-Danville.

Cathedral Catholic traveled to Nebraska and defeated Ponte Vedra-Ponte Vedra Beach (Fla.) and Papillion La Vista South-Papillion (Neb.) to win the four-team GEICO Invitational on ESPN+. Opponents were good but not as tough as the Dons faced in the Durango Invitational – or will see in the upcoming CIF Southern Section Open Division playoffs.

Those wins kept the Dons at the top of our rankings for California – and the nation – as they improved to 30-0 with a 25-23, 25-17, 25-19 sweep of the hometown Titans in the final.

Colgate-bound Milan Bayless led the way with 16 kills and Stanford-commit Julia Blyashov contributed 13 kills.

Mira Costa won the Redondo/Mira Costa Power Classic, including a decisive 25-10, 25-19 win over revenge-minded Redondo Union-Redondo Beach in the final. The Mustangs racked up sweeps over tough Clovis West-Fresno and Lakewood on their way to the trophy match.

The Stockton Classic had a power-packed field of teams from all over Northern California.

St. Francis proved their mettle by rolling to the title and remained unbeaten. Strong showings were made by Archbishop Mitty-San Jose and Monte Vista.

California girls volleyball Top 20 (records thru Oct. 8)

1. Cathedral Catholic-San Diego (San Diego Section, 30-0 overall record, No. 1 last week)
In front of a rowdy crowd at Papillion, Dons saw 24-20 first-set lead slink to 24-23 but Bayless banged home the winner, and Cathedral Catholic was on its way to maintaining incredible record of not dropping a set all year.

Team shot after winning the four-team GEICO Invitational in Nebraska. Photo: Courtesy of Cathedral Catholic athletics. 

2. Mira Costa (Southern Section, 31-3, No. 2 LW)
Mustangs defeated dangerous Palos Verdes 25-22, 25-22, 32-30 behind 22 kills from Drew Wright and 14 from Arizona beach-bound Tanon Rosenthal. Then they rolled through the weekend tournament. Rosenthal had nine kills and a .467 attack percentage in the two-set finals sweep of Redondo.

3. Marymount-Los Angeles (SS, 26-6, No. 4 LW) 
Marymount is back. Sailors bounced Sierra Canyon-Chatsworth in big Mission League showdown, winning 25-23, 16-25, 25-22, 25-16. That was big revenge for a September 6 loss as Marymount looks to continue their streak of 21 straight league titles.

4. Sierra Canyon (SS, 27-4, No. 3 LW)
Julia Babcock had 18 kills in the loss to Marymount. Trailblazers outscored Marymount 48-41 in first two sets but that just left things even and Sailors took control thereafter.

5. St. Francis-Mountain View (Central Coast Section, 24-0, No. 5 LW)
Lancers swept rival Archbishop Mitty in a West Catholic Athletic League battle 25-21, 25-23, 25-23. Then St. Francis rolled to the Stockton Classic title and championship contest win against Mitty 25-19, 25-20. St. Francis is looking for their first CIF State appearance since 2010 behind setter Havannah Hoeft dishing to a front line featuring Taylor Williams and Erin Curtis. 

6. Palos Verdes-Palos Verdes Estates (SS, 17-5, No. 6 LW)
Sea Kings made believers of any doubters by following close loss to Mira Costa with home win over Redondo 25-23, 26-24, 21-25, 25-15. Kaci Demaria smashed 18 kills and Kendall Beshear added 13 in the victory to give PV their first-ever season sweep of Redondo.

7. Lakewood (SS, 25-5, No. 9 LW)
Lancers woke up the non-believers with tourney victory over Liberty-Bakersfield 23-25, 25-22, 15-13 and close loss to Mira Costa by just 25-19, 25-23.

8. Redondo Union (SS, 21-10, No. 7 LW)
Redondo lost to Palos Verdes and Mira Costa but don’t take your eye off them. Remember, the Sea Hawks were only a few points away from a four-set win over Costa a week ago before that miraculous Mustangs rally.

9. Mater Dei-Santa Ana (SS, 25-7, No. 10 LW)
Monarchs are deep with attack of Isabel Clark, Babi Gubbins and Cymarah Gordon on the outside, Liv Hertzog in the middle and two strong setters in Ayva Ostovar and Mikayla Delgadillo.

10. Huntington Beach (SS, 25-3, No. 11 LW)
Home sweep of Los Alamitos by scores of 25-21, 25-16, 25-16 is quite a message for the Oilers. 

11. Torrey Pines-San Diego (SDS, 21-6, No. 12 LW)
Stellar setter Nikki Quinn leads the Falcons. Torrey Pines was drilled by Redondo 25-14, 25-18 but got wild win over Newport Harbor 18-25, 25-11, 15-13.

12. Archbishop Mitty (CCS, 21-6, No. 13 LW)
Mitty hasn’t beaten St. Francis-Mountain View yet, but do emphasize the word “yet” as they’ll meet several more times.

13. San Clemente (SS, 17-9, No. 8 LW)
Tritons own early-season wins over Mater Dei and Palos Verdes but lost to St. Francis-Mountain View and San Juan Hills in the last week. The latter defeat drops them in the rankings.

14. Oak Ridge-El Dorado Hills (San Joaquin Section, 24-3, No. 16 LW)
Elle Weaver and Madison Walker lead the Trojans, who topped Christian Brothers-Sacramento 25-18, 25-10, 25-20.

15. Monte Vista (North Coast Section, 23-6, Not ranked)
Tourney results showed Mustangs defeating Marin Catholic-Kentfield, which beat Amador Valley-Pleasanton. Monte Vista also gave St. Francis-Mountain View a battle. Now can they top Amador Valley and San Ramon Valley-Danville in East Bay Athletic League play?

16. Bishop Alemany (SS, 17-5, No. 20 LW)
Warriors lost to Sierra Canyon but it was quite a tight contest, with Trailblazers prevailing 25-17, 25-27, 26-24, 25-17.

17. Clovis East (Central Section, 32-3, Not ranked)
Maddie Feramisco, Malia Edwardson and Jordyn Kwalwasser lead the Timberwolves, who are 6-0 in the competitive Tri-River League and have won 14 in a row.

18. Sacred Heart Prep-Atherton (CCS, 17-4, Not ranked)
Isabelle Marco and Mia Radoff lead the Gators, who are rolling and own a big victory over Burlingame.

19. San Ramon Valley (NCS, 18-4, No. 14 LW)
Lucy Chertock connects for 3.4 kills per set and her attack percentage is .323. But Wolves lost to Rocklin and Clovis North-Fresno.

20. Amador Valley (NCS, 19-3, No. 15 LW)
Lost to Marin Catholic and St. Mary’s-Stockton but they crushed Rocklin 25-7, 25-18.

On the bubble: Whitney-Rocklin (SJS), Cypress (SS), Clovis North-Fresno (CS), Etiwanda (SS), Liberty (CS), Harbor-Santa Cruz (CCS), Santa Cruz (CCS), Santa Margarita-Rancho Santa Margarita (SS), St. Mary’s-Stockton (SJS).

Comments, questions or opinions? Email gordon.kass@gmail.com.