Updated Team Rankings for Tuesday, Sept. 18
The picture in Class A is starting to become as clear as mud.
While Millard North is safely perched at the top of the rankings with its 15-0 mark, we’re starting to see that teams #2 through #10 are pretty interchangeable depending on the day.
Lincoln Pius X and Papillion-LaVista (which won the LPC Invitational over the weekend) have been the ones that have avoided defeats better than the rest of the contenders at this point, but the LPS Invite showed nothing is to be taken for granted.
Norris, a team struggling to maintain a spot in the Class B top 10, took a set from Papillion-LaVista in the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Elkhorn South suffered its first two losses of the season – to Lincoln Southwest in the quarterfinals and Papillion-LaVista South in the 5th-place match – after having multiple match points slip through its fingers in each. All of this created a lot of murky water in the Class A and B rankings, but here is how I sort through it.
In Class A, Millard North has been clearly the best and most consistent team through three weeks. While Pius X and Papio have each shown they can compete with anyone, they’ve also had moments where they haven’t looked so good – but they’ve kept those moments to a minimum.
Papio South has had moments where it looks like the best threat to Millard North in Class A but hasn’t been able to string together a group of wins yet. Millard West is dangerous but streaky. Gretna’s best win over a Class A opponent is probably its victory against 9-3 Kearney, although the Bearcats have played a very soft schedule thus far. Millard South is balanced and scrappy, but like it’s Q St. neighbors to the West, pretty streaky.
Marian played well and finished second in the LPS Invite, but still does not have a win over a team ranked higher than it. Both Lincoln Southwest and Lincoln Southeast have some really nice pieces, but just simply don’t seem to have the depth of the teams ahead of them.
In Class B, I’m sticking with Elkhorn South this week at the top. The Storm have earned the chance to have the top spot for another week after losing to a pair of ranked Class A teams over the weekend – and as mentioned before – Elkhorn South had match point in each of those contests.
Skutt and Omaha Duchesne are right behind, however, and Duchesne is coming off a stellar weekend in which it handed both Lincoln Lutheran and Wahoo their first losses of the year. Hastings, Alliance and Sidney all should be on your radar in Class B. Aside from the top three teams in the class, nobody in Class B has great depth and what each of those three schools has is big-time players that can carry a team. Alliance got a big win over Sidney last week and has things rolling.
With both Wahoo and Lincoln Lutheran losing to Omaha Duchesne, the potential was there for St. Paul to take the top spot, but it’s really hard to punish either of those teams for losing to Duchesne.
Here are the updated rankings in each class:
Rank, Team, Record, Last Week’s Ranking
Class A
1.) Millard North (15-0) 1
2.) Papillion-LaVista (12-3) 5
3.) Lincoln Pius X (10-2) 2
4.) Papillion-LaVista South (9-6) 3
5.) Millard West (7-5) 4
6.) Gretna (10-2) 6
7.) Millard South (8-7) 7
8.) Omaha Marian (9-4) 8
9.) Lincoln Southwest (6-5) 9
10.) Lincoln Southeast (9-6) 10
Class B
1.) Elkhorn South (12-2) 1
2.) Skutt Catholic (10-3) 2
3.) Omaha Duchesne (13-2) 3
4.) Hastings (12-1) 4
5.) Alliance (8-0) 5
6.) Sidney (8-1) 7
7.) Elkhorn (7-4) 6
8.) Waverly (9-4) 8
9.) Bennington (10-5) 9
10.) Norris (11-7) 10
Class C-1
1.) Wahoo (11-1) 1
2.) St. Paul (14-0) 2
3.) Lincoln Lutheran (14-1) 3
4.) Bishop Neumann (10-0) 4
5.) Grand Island Central Catholic (11-2) 5
6.) Kearney Catholic (9-3) 6
7.) Omaha Concordia (7-8) 7
8.) Syracuse (10-1) 9
9.) Broken Bow (8-1) 10
10.) Ogallala (9-6) NR
Class C-2
1.) Stanton (13-1) 1
2.) Superior (10-1) 2
3.) Blue Hill (11-2) 3
4.) Hartington Cedar Catholic (15-3) 4
5.) Thayer Central (9-0) 5
6.) Freeman (11-3) 7
7.) Doniphan-Trumbull (8-4) 9
8.) Clarkson-Leigh (6-3) 10
9.) Battle Creek (8-4) 8
10.) Arcadia-Loup City (7-3) 6
Class D-1
1.) Archbishop Bergan (13-0) 1
2.) Johnson-Brock (12-2) 2
3.) Humphrey-Lindsay Holy Family (12-0) 3
4.) Nebraska Christian (8-1) 4
5.) Hartington-Newcastle (8-2) 6
6.) Giltner (8-1) 7
7.) Diller-Odell (5-4) 8
8.) Lutheran High Northeast (8-5) 9
9.) Pleasanton (12-2) NR
10.) Neigh-Oakdale (7-1) NR
Class D-2
1.) BDS (9-1) 1
2.) Ewing (10-0) 2
3.) CWC (8-1) 3
4.) Mullen (9-1) 4
5.) Exeter-Milligan (9-4) 5
6.) Cody-Kilgore (8-0) 6
7.) Falls City Sacred Heart (8-5) 7
8.) Red Cloud (7-2) 8
9.) Hampton (8-5) 9
10.) Mead (6-3) NR