Girls Soccer: Where are your local teams in the polls, and where are they heading?

CIF-SS Girls Soccer Rankings
DIVISION 2 -- 1. Palos Verdes; 2. Upland; 3. Los Osos; 4. Corona Santiago; 5. Long Beach Wilson; 6. Great Oak; 7. Buena; 8. Dos Pueblos; 9. Murrieta Valley; 10T. Sunny Hills; 10T. Troy. (Glendora not ranked).
DIVISION 3 -- 1. Granite Hills; 2. Ayala; 3. Bishop Amat ; 4. Righetti; 5. La Mirada; 6. La Salle; 7. Los Altos ; 8. Serrano; 9. Flintridge Prep; 10. Lakewood St. Joseph.
DIVISION 6 -- 1. St. Margaret's; 2. Hemet; 3. Sierra Vista; 4. Alverno; 5. San Marino; 6. San Jacinto; 7. Northview; 8. Crean Lutheran; 9. Tahquitz; 10. Beaumont (NR).

The 411: There are only three divisions that mean anything, and as you can tell, Sierra Vista is best positioned to make another championship run, though my money would be on Northview or San Dimas to make a deeper playoff run in D-6 than the Dons, who won a D-7 title last year. It's not on overwhelming division, but I don't expect any of our teams to win it. West SGV teams like Alverno and San Marino probably have a better shot. In Division 3, believe me when I say it's a crap shoot. There is no slam dunk. There is no team that's going to cruise through the division. There are a lot of good teams, not great ones, which means the team that plays the best defense and is most opportunistic will advance. I love that Walnut's not ranked, they could be a sleeper, that is if they stop screwing around and make the playoffs. But that's life in the Hacienda where a team like Bonita will have to scratch and fight for a playoff spot too. Diamond Bar's not ranked either, but they could take the lead in the Hacienda with a victory over Los Altos today, which is interesting because Diamond Bar's resume includes losses to Glendora (3-1), San Dimas (1-0) and Bishop Amat (2-1) with wins over Claremont (2-0), Diamond Ranch (1-0), Bonita (1-0) and a tie with Walnut (1-1). It actually makes you think the Hacienda isn't as strong as you thought it was. My impression of Los Altos is they can score, but aren't as solid in the back as they were last year, but still good enough to beat anyone in this division on any given day. No. 4 Bishop Amat seems to be back on track, but we'll no more after a game today at home against No. 10. St. Joseph and a home-and-away against No. 6 La Salle. My impressions on Amat is that they miss defender Jasmine Roth, now at Arizona State, but offensively, they create the most chances and are the best offensive team I've seen all year. Oh yeah, there is No. 3 Ayala, who has defeated Amat and Walnut already, though that was much earlier in season, and in Amat's case, several players were gone. Still, you know Ayala is good, too much club talent in the area for them not to be. Then there's Glendora, arguably a top-five area team, but they're over-matched in Division 2. It's one thing to have four or five premiere players on your team, but once you start competing in Div-2 and Div-1, you're facing teams with premiere players coming off the bench like Flintridge Sacred Heart. For those who haven't seen FSHA, you're missing the best team in the San Gabriel Valley by a landslide...

Girls Soccer standings, schedules, leaders
Baseline League
Del Rey League
Hacienda League
Mission Valley League
Montview League
Sierra League
Valle Vista League