At State #2, Ventura in rare perch at top of South In Volleyball Top 25 Rankings
If you go back to the start of the 21st century, Ventura College has not been a usual name mentioned among the South Region elite programs in women's volleyball. In fact, the Pirates last made the state tournament back in 2000 when it finished in fourth place. That was the last year that California Community Colleges scored sets to 15 points and points could only be recorded off of sideouts by a team.
But in 2022, Ventura, under head coach Brad Lyans, has emerged in the first few weeks of the season as not only the #2-ranked team but the current top squad in the South in the CCCWVCA State Top 25 Rankings #3. The Pirates (10-0) are one of just five teams remaining with undefeated records in the state.
Led by All-American candidate in setter-opposite Nevada Knowles, Ventura is hoping to make a return to the CCCAA state tourney this year. Besides 2000, the only other time Ventura made the state tourney was in 1991 when it finished a program-best third place.
Eight of the top nine ranked teams (Big 8 Conference has two) are all from different conferences, showing the variety of strong teams throughout the state.
Feather River (14-1), the state's leader in victories and North top-rated, remains as the #1 team as there were no changes in the top seven teams from last week's state rankings. After #3 San Joaquin Delta, #4 San Diego Mesa, #5 American River, #6 San Mateo and #7 Fresno City, Orange Coast (7-1) has snuck into the top 10 at the #8 spot. Another Pirates squad, OCC swept new #24 El Camino.
It was ECC that then sent some shockwaves around the state with an upset of now #9 Pasadena City, who saw a 7-match win streak snapped in losing their South Coast Conference opener to the Warriors in four sets. Last year, PCC went undefeated in winning the SCC title at 18-0. El Camino was winless at 0-7 coming into the match but its schedule is easily the toughest pre-conference schedule in the state. ECC's losses were against the state's #4, 8, 10, 11, 12, 16 and 18 ranked teams. El Camino also caught PCC after it had performed a morale high in rallying from 2-0 down to beat #18 Canyons in five sets in some pay back after COC had eliminated the Lancers in a Cinderalla story upset in the first round of the 2021 SoCal Regional Playoffs.
Ventura was another team that had lost to COC on the Cougars ride to last year's state tourney, but the Pirates avenged that defeat with a 4-set win over Canyons last week.
American River (8-2) swept Modesto to open Big 8 Conference action. San Mateo managed to edge #17 Sierra in five sets while Fresno, the defending state champions, extended its incredible win streaks in Central Valley Conference play with a conference-opening sweep over West Hills Lemoore. The Rams have won 145 consecutive CVC matches and now 105 straight sets in league play.
Moorpark comes in at #10 after surviving an epic 5-setter v. #T25 Bakersfield. The Raiders outscored the Renegades, 115-110, in points as Moorpark won the marathon Western State Conference crossover, 25-21, 23-25, 24-26, 28-26, 15-12. Despite a win over Fullerton, Cypress fell one spot to #11 while #12 Grossmont jumped four slots thanks mostly to a sweep over #15 Irvine Valley. The Griffins had one of the region's pick for State Player of the Week #4 in Madi Bogle.
College of the Sequoias also is making noise and climbed six spots to #13 after edging #14 Hartnell in five sets. Hartnell had swept the Giants a week earlier at the Delta Classic. Mia Gilcrest, who was named NorCal's State Player of the Week #4, scored an amazing 36 kills in the Hartnell victory. She leads the state in kills, total points, and kills per set.
A mystery team with apparently tremendous potential is new #19 Santa Ana, undefeated at 8-0 after a sweep over Golden West that opened Orange Empire Confernece play. The Dons strength of schedule thus far makes them difficult to rank higher, but they will get their biggest test thus far when they play Cypress this Wednesday, Sept. 21. At #20, Folsom Lake edged #22 West Valley in five sets, taking the finale, 15-13.
In the best of the rest, Los Angeles Mission College hosted its second, 8-team tournament of the season and won the Eagle Invitational over previously undefeated East Los Angeles in a sweep during the finals match.
The complete Top 25 rankings with detailed updates on all the teams are at the following link: CCCWVCA State Top 25 Rankings #3
Release/Rankings by Robert Lewis, CCCWVCA SID