Sports
Sailors Top Preseason Volleyball Poll
Marymount High is No. 1 in the first CIF-SS Division 1A girls rankings.
Marymount High School's girls volleyball team will begin this season right where it ended the last—at the summit of the CIF Southern Section mountain.
The first preseason fall sports polls have been revealed and it comes as no big surprise that the reigning champion Sailors are ranked No. 1 in the Southern Section Division 1A girls volleyball Top 10 poll.
Preseason polls were voted on, coordinated and then finalized by the CIF Southern Section Girls Volleyball Coaches Advisory Committee. The rankings in each division will be updated every week throughout the season.
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Marymount, an all-girls Catholic school across the street from UCLA, has been a perennial power for more than a decade under Palisadian and 2010 CIF-SS Coach of the Year Cari Klein, who has guided the program to six state championships since 2000 and seven section titles over the last 10 seasons.
Led by a trio of former teammates—Taylor Bantle (now a freshman at Brown), Christine Irvin and Lanti Moye-McLaren— the Sailors captured the Southern Section Division 1A title last November, defeating Redlands East Valley, 25-20, 25-18, 20-25, 25-23, in the finals at Cypress College.
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Marymount then swept Bakersfield Centennial in the opening round of the Division I state playoffs before falling to Division 1AA champion Long Beach Poly, the eventual Southern California Regional winner and state finalist.
The rest of the initial Division 1A poll is as follows: 2. Corona del Mar; 3. Laguna Beach; 4. Vista Murrieta; 5. Valencia; 6. Los Osos; 7. Murrieta Valley; 8. Redlands East Valley; 9. El Dorado; and 10. Notre Dame Academy, runner-up to Marymount in the Sunshine League last year.
Los Alamitos is the preseason favorite in Division 1AA. Rounding out the list of initial No. 1 schools are St. Lucy's (Division 2AA), Downey (Division 2A), Pasadena Poly (Division 3AA), Campbell Hall (Division 3A), St. Margaret's (Division 4AA), Hemet (Division 4A), Desert Christian Academy (Division 5AA) and Firebaugh (Division 5A).
The girls volleyball season officially begins Monday and the playoffs will start November 7. The CIF Southern Section finals will be Nov. 18-19 at Cypress College and the state tournament will be from Nov. 22 to December 3.
Click here to see all of the girls volleyball preseason Top 10 polls.
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