Rankings Shuffle: Wild First Week Produces New Leaders

In what is sure to be a season where several teams go up and down in all the class rankings for Nebraska high school volleyball, we already have new teams atop the Class A and B rankings.

First, there is a change in how the rankings are done. We are now ranking all classes instead of combining C-1 & C-2 as well as D-1 & D-2.

For a complete listing of the rankings, please click on the High School Rankings tab at the top of the page.

In Class A, Lincoln Southwest edges out Millard North for the top spot based simply on the eye-test. Right now, Lincoln Southwest looks like the most complete team, but by winning the Bellevue Invite, the Mustangs made a strong case for the #1 ranking. It’s important to note that 13 of the last 18 Class A champions have won the Bellevue Invite. A big part of Millard North’s success can likely be connected to the fact that four of their key players spent all of last spring and summer playing together on the Premier 17 Gold team. Cohession creates success and Millard North put that on full display last weekend. Millard West actually drops a spot to make room for Lincoln Southwest and Millard North. While the Wildcats looked very impressive at times in winning the Heartland Crossroads Tournament Saturday in Fremont, dropping a set to Class B Columbus and having a hard time putting away Elkhorn South in the championship game kept them from claiming a higher spot.

Could the top teams in Class B be as good as the top teams in A? Absolutely, and it was proven in the opening week of play. Defending Class B champion Grand Island Northwest looked every bit the part of championship team in going undefeated and winning the Beatrice Invitational. It’s hard to say Omaha Skutt’s 5-1 and 2nd-place performance at the Bellevue Invitational didn’t earn it the top spot in B, but until someone proves Northwest is beatable, it’s the top team.

Columbus Scotus survived a scare from Bishop Neumann in the championship of the Shamrock Invite Saturday to take the top spot in Class C-1. Tuesday’s match between Scotus and Omaha Concordia should be a great match-up. Concordia had pretty good success in Omaha summer league play and it also boasts one of the top juniors in all of Nebraska in Megan Wickey. Talent in C-1 is deep as well, with each team ranked in the top 10 having a legitimate shot at bringing home a state title. Class C-2 isn’t quite as wide open with Lutheran High Northeast and Hastings St. Cecilia having a solid grasp on the top two spots, respectively. Blue Hill and Elmwood-Murdock were each impressive over the weekend as well.

In Class D-1 North Platte St. Patrick’s has the ability to go wire-to-wire as the No. 1 team. The top of the rankings is pretty stable, but Friend and Twin Loup each made strong impressions in the first week of the season. In D-2, Mead takes over at #1 as #2 Exeter-Milligan lost to BDS and #3 Ewing suffered a setback against St. Mary’s. Neither team was punished much for those losses, however, since they were each to ranked D-1 teams.[polldaddy poll=7383063]