Updated Team Rankings for Monday, Oct. 15
A popular question come mid-October in Nebraska when it comes to high school volleyball is, ‘Who is going to win the state title?’
Well, with about three weeks left until we find out, your guess is really about as good as mine. This is the time of the year when teams either find the next gear and crank it up for the home stretch or teams start to wither on the pressure of trying to reach the state tournament. We’ll soon find out who those teams are that are legit title contenders, but for now, the best thing to do is look at who has an uphill battle to finish the season as the last team standing.
We can do that by taking a historical look at what previous state champions have done. We’ve been playing high school volleyball in Nebraska since 1972. In the 45+ years of high school volleyball, no team has ever won a state title with more than 11 losses. So, it’s a fairly safe assumption to say that once a team has lost more than 11 matches, the odds of that team winning a state title officially drop to pretty much zip. Roughly 200 state championships have been handed out in volleyball, none to teams with more than 11 losses in that season.
In Class A, Millard North captured the state title with 11 losses in 2016 and Omaha Marian (pictured above) did it in 2013. In both cases, the teams were loaded with really young talent and it all came together for them in the final weeks. In 2015, Hastings St. Cecilia won the Class C-2 title with 11 losses after getting red-hot in postseason play. In fact, the Hawkettes were the fourth seed in a four-team subdistrict that season and wound up winning the whole thing.
In 2006, Falls City Sacred Heart won the Class D-2 title with 11 losses. For teams in Class B, C-1 and D-1, however, the number of losses history tells us you can have drops lower.
The most losses a team has had while winning a state championship in Class D-1 is nine – which is the number of losses Johnson-Brock had when it started its current string of three-straight state titles. Again, in that case, it was a young team with a freshman named Fallon Stutheit and sophomores Kaitlynn Simon and Brynn Westenburg.
In Class C-1, the record for most losses for a state-championship team is eight, which was done by Kearney Catholic in 2013 on its way to a second straight state title during a four-year reign as champions. That was also the year senior setter Shayla Conner proclaimed that nobody should “underestimate the heart of a champion.”
Them most losses for a Class B champion is also eight. Skutt had eight losses when it won it all last year while that’s also the number of losses Norris had in its 2013 championship season and Omaha Gross actually lost eight in both 2009 and 2010 when it won back-to-back state titles.
So, as it check out our updated team rankings, keep those magical, historical numbers in mind when trying to determine the likelihood of your team being the one hoisting the state championship trophy at Bob Devaney Sports Center in a few weeks.
Here are the updated rankings in each class:
Rank, Team, Record, Last Week’s Ranking
Class A
1.) Lincoln Pius X (26-2) 1
2.) Millard North (28-2) 2
3.) Millard West (18-7) 3
4.) Omaha Marian (21-9) 5
5.) Papillion-LaVista (20-10) 4
6.) Millard South (19-12) 8
7.) Gretna (16-7) 7
8.) Papillion-LaVista South (16-15) 6
9.) Bellevue West (17-15) 10
10.) Kearney (17-12) NR
Class B
1.) Skutt Catholic (22-4) 1
2.) Elkhorn South (23-7) 2
3.) Omaha Duchesne (22-5) 3
4.) Waverly (21-7) 4
5.) Norris (19-9) 5
6.) Elkhorn (18-12) 7
7.) Hastings (22-3) 6
8.) Alliance (21-4) 8
9.) Bennington (15-9) 9
10.) Sidney (20-7) 10
Class C-1
1.) Wahoo (23-2) 1
2.) Bishop Neumann (23-1) 2
3.) Grand Island Central Catholic (22-4) 3
4.) Lincoln Lutheran (25-2) 4
5.) St. Paul (27-1) 5
6.) Syracuse (20-2) 6
7.) Kearney Catholic (15-10) 8
8.) Lincoln Christian (14-11) 9
9.) Douglas County West (16-6) 10
10.) Omaha Concordia (11-13) NR
Class C-2
1.) Stanton (22-1) 1
2.) Blue Hill (23-2) 2
3.) Superior (22-2) 3
4.) Hartington Cedar Catholic (21-3) 4
5.) Hastings St. Cecilia (18-7) 5
6.) Doniphan-Trumbull (16-7) 6
7.) Thayer Central (19-3) 7
8.) Fillmore Central (15-7) 8
9.) Clarkson-Leigh (21-7) 9
10.) Battle Creek (18-7) 10
Class D-1
1.) Archbishop Bergan (24-4) 1
2.) Johnson-Brock (21-3) 2
3.) Humphrey-Lindsay Holy Family (23-2) 3
4.) Nebraska Christian (21-2) 4
5.) Pleasanton (24-2) 6
6.) Diller-Odell (21-5) 7
7.) Cambridge (18-3) 8
8.) Giltner (19-5) 9
9.) Hartington-Newcastle (18-4) 5
10.) Lutheran High Northeast (18-7) 10
Class D-2
1.) Ewing (23-0) 1
2.) BDS (20-4) 2
3.) CWC (20-4) 3
4.) Kenesaw (16-9) 4
5.) Exeter-Milligan (19-6) 5
6.) Falls City Sacred Heart (17-8) 6
7.) Mullen (19-3) 7
8.) Wynot (14-4) NR
9.) Cody-Kilgore (18-4) 10
10.) Crawford (17-6) NR
