7A, 6A, 5A Power Rankings

[Vballfan]

Well - not exactly scientific or even objective  - just one person's opinion from what I have seen in school, in club and some early season score comparisons.

Football gets all kinds of coverage, rankings, etc- lets give the Volleyball girls some recognition - if you have a different opinion please share it or can add more teams in respective classes-  please do!

Volley Rankings

7A Power Rankings          6A Power Rankings      5A Power Rankings
1   Har-Ber                   1   Greenwood      1. Valley View
2   Fayetteville       2   Marion              2  Paragould
3   FS Southside      3   Russellville              3. Batesville
4   Bentonville                4   ?                      4.Harrisson
5   Mt. St. Mary                 
6   NLR               
7   Conway                
8   Bryant             
9   Springdale                
10   Cabot               

7A Comments - while Fayetteville and Bentonville battled in the finals last year and are probably on paper the favorites - I like Har-Ber to surprise.  North Little Rock could easily move up - they have two wins over Conway and a 3-0 win over Marion.

6A - another poster stated Greenwood looks a lot stronger this year.  Russellville drops a 5 set match to Springdale, Marion to NLR in 3.  I still like Marion as the favorite in 6A-  but giving Greenwood some props for their competitiveness.  Traditional powers Mountain Home and Jonesboro appear to be starting a little slower this year but both have excellent coaches and could easily get back in the conversation

5A - I have only seen Valley View and Batesville.  Even though they are young- I like Valley View to win it all.  Batesville also has some nice wins early in the season,  Harrison also started strong

[Marionvolleyballdad]

Marion has started the season without Sr. starter Diane Phillips (Arkansas State commit).  She tore her meniscus during a jamboree at Valley View.  She has had surgery to repair the injury and has begun rehab and should be back in the line up in 2 to 3 weeks.  Marion is starting 5 juniors and 1 sophomore without her in the line up.  They have done a good job but are young.  Hopefully they will be back to full strength in a couple of weeks.  Marion looked good in the first 2 games of the season but came out very flat yesterday against NLR.  They travel to Mountain Home tomorrow and hopefully they will rebound from the loss yesterday.

[1-Adam-12]

I will try my hand at 3A.  Only ranking six at this time, based on what I've seen or heard.

1. Paris (outstanding hitter, libero and setter all back from state runner-up team)
2. Hoxie (owns a win over Walnut Ridge at WR and has experience at state level)
3. Walnut Ridge (surprise of 3A tourney last year returns almost everyone)
4. Booneville (2-time All-State libero heads up this very deep team)
5. Harding Academy (has tradition and some great results so far)
6. Piggott (will be buoyed by the fact that State is at their place and has talent)

A couple of others to watch that I've seen might be Atkins and Jessieville. There are doubtless other contenders I don't know anything about.

In 4A, Mena is definitely the team to beat.  Graduated their libero but their current one is not bad either. All their power players return, plus they picked up a quality move-in from Arkadelphia.  I don't see them being challenged in their conference.

[sevenof400]

I think Harding Academy will be improved this year - they have a new coach, lost only two seniors and are now benefiting from some of their maturing junior high talent.  The question for Harding will be (as it usually is) how much their conference prepares them for the state tournament.   

[WPWells]

How's Mansfield in the 3A?

[1-Adam-12]

Mansfield is very down.  All they return is their middle and an OH.  Jessieville beat them at Mena Tournament and Lavaca beat them last night.  Their only win is against Waldron, who also appears to be down (Lavaca took them to 5 and Booneville beat them in three straight).

They might sneak into state but the likelihood of them winning 4 in a row is not very high IMO.

[TBone70]

Marion has started the season without Sr. starter Diane Phillips (Arkansas State commit).  She tore her meniscus during a jamboree at Valley View.  She has had surgery to repair the injury and has begun rehab and should be back in the line up in 2 to 3 weeks.  Marion is starting 5 juniors and 1 sophomore without her in the line up.  They have done a good job but are young.  Hopefully they will be back to full strength in a couple of weeks.  Marion looked good in the first 2 games of the season but came out very flat yesterday against NLR.  They travel to Mountain Home tomorrow and hopefully they will rebound from the loss yesterday.

Ouch, got stung by Mtn Home tonight.

[Vballfan]

Updated:
7A:
1) Fayetteville
2) Bentonville
3) Southside
4) Har-Ber
5) North Little Rock
6) MSM
7) Bryant
. Conway
9) Rogers Heritage
10) Rogers

Shaping up to be another 7A West tournament with Fayetteville and Bentonville the favorites with Southside/Har-Ber behind them but likely ahead of the rest of the field.  MSM and Bryant having early success which should make for a competitive 7A/6A Central division race with Greenwood, Conway and Russellville and perhaps some competitive early round matches in the tournament.  Springdale and Cabot fall out of the top 10 joining the likes of  Central, Van Buren, West Memphis, Northside.  Cabot and Central are the most likely teams to make the tournament of this group based on the relative lack of strength in their 4 team 7A division.

6A
1) Greenwood
2) Mountain Home
3) Marion
4) Russellville

Mountain Home is playing well in what seems to be a relatively down 7A/6A East.  North Little Rock is strong but Cabot has disappointed not winning any meaningful matches all season (1 win vs Kipp Delta and a 3-2 win over Central), Marion hasn't been at full strength with out their best player, Jonesboro seems down...  6A does appear to be wide open with Greenwood having the most impressive wins thus far this year.  I still look for Marion and Russellville to get it together and be factors but Mountain Home and Greenwood are in good position to make a run.

5A
1) Valley View
2) Paragould
3) Batesville
4) Harrison
5) LRCA

Valley View appears to be the odds on favorite with the 3 top teams playing recently.  Valley View's youth and maintaining consistency may be their biggest challenge.   Hard to know how Harrison compares at this point based on the disparity of competition between the two conferences - but my guess is below the top 3.

[1-Adam-12]

I haven't seen anything that would change my top 6 in 3A just yet, though Valley Springs has now appeared on my radar. They are unbeaten in the 3A North.

If both teams take care of their business Monday and Tuesday, Booneville and Paris are headed for a showdown for the 3A West lead in Paris next Thursday.  Both teams have been playing extremely well.

[1-Adam-12]

And Mansfield appears to be improving as well. By reading another thread I found out they won a tournament at Harrison which included straight sets win over Piggott and Valley Springs both of whom should make state.  So the Lady Tigers may not be ready to give up the state title without a fight.

[SouthPa]

Vballfan, if you're going to give "traditonal powers" credit, you haven't even mentioned the South's best volleyball team.....Benton.  They have gotten off to a slow start because of their youth, but now have rattled off 4 consecutive wins.  Don't count out the Lady Panthers from Benton.

[Vballfan]

Vballfan, if you're going to give "traditonal powers" credit, you haven't even mentioned the South's best volleyball team.....Benton.  They have gotten off to a slow start because of their youth, but now have rattled off 4 consecutive wins.  Don't count out the Lady Panthers from Benton.

Fair enough. They do have a good program.  It's hard to measure how they stack up relative to the other 6A powers this year based on the competition in their conference ( no fault of their own)  The best team they played is probably Mena and lost 3-0.  Park view and Hall don't count in the win streak though

[SouthPa]

I don't know their schedule, I just know they have been a volleyball power for quite some time with at least one recent state championship and two or three state runner-ups.  They'll be better toward the end of the year, like I said, they are very young.  They are well-coached

[1-Adam-12]

In 3A, last night's win by Episcopal over Harding Academy definitely got my attention.  One set of Lady Wildcats therefore replaces another. 

Piggott also drops out after losing to Mansfield in the Harrison tournament.  Valley Springs, despite suffering the same fate, takes their place for now. That was only VS' second loss where Piggott has lost at least four now.

For now the top four remain unchanged.  Booneville and Paris hook up Thursday in a big one at Paris, but the Lady Cats must first take care of business against Lavaca today.

[1-Adam-12]

Been a while and lots of things have happened.

3A--For me Hoxie and Booneville are 1-2 in some order right now with Paris and Walnut Ridge 3-4 in some order.  Episcopal and Valley Springs round out the top 6.  Atkins, Alpena and Marianna are knocking on the door while Harding Academy has slipped.

Hoxie and WR play Tuesday at Hoxie.  The Booneville-Paris rematch isn't until Oct. 13 and is at Booneville. 

4A--Mena and Shiloh are clearly the top two, and there's some distance between them and the next level of teams.  That next level has teams like Harrisburg, Brookland, Clinton, Fountain Lake, Southside Batesville, Jonesboro Westside, Berryville and CAC.

[Vballfan]

Only a few Changes, don't really see this changing much so this will be my last ranking of the top teams.  Good luck to all teams in October as they get ready for the tourney.
7A:
1)Fayetteville
2) Bentonville
3) Har-Ber
4) Conway
5) FS Southside
Everyone else

Conway seems to have found their winning ways again, the 6-10 teams would be pretty competitive and hard to say who is really ahead of whom. Bryant has had a good year and deserves a mention but I expect like others have said for the finals to be rematches of the 7A West battles.

6A:
1) Greenwood
2) Marion
3) Russellville
Mountain Home has had a good year - Marion handled them with ease last night - I see this group of 3 well above the rest of the of the field.

5A)
1) Valley View
2) Paragould
Harrison, Batesville and maybe Pulaski Academy are the next group - but well below these two in my view.

[KingOfNothing]

Only a few Changes, don't really see this changing much so this will be my last ranking of the top teams.  Good luck to all teams in October as they get ready for the tourney.
7A:
1)Fayetteville
2) Bentonville
3) Har-Ber
4) Conway
5) FS Southside
Everyone else

Conway seems to have found their winning ways again, the 6-10 teams would be pretty competitive and hard to say who is really ahead of whom. Bryant has had a good year and deserves a mention but I expect like others have said for the finals to be rematches of the 7A West battles.

6A:
1) Greenwood
2) Marion
3) Russellville
Mountain Home has had a good year - Marion handled them with ease last night - I see this group of 3 well above the rest of the of the field.

5A)
1) Valley View
2) Paragould
Harrison, Batesville and maybe Pulaski Academy are the next group - but well below these two in my view.

I have to agree with you! It looks like it will probably be a Bentonville vs. Fayetteville State Championship match this year, although the Conway win over Greenwood did get my attention. Frankly, I don't know a lot about Conway, but I do know that Greenwood is VERY good this year, so Conway has to be playing pretty well to beat them. Har-Ber and Southside are both hard to read. Both have lots of talent, but there seem to be certain teams they can't compete with for whatever reasons.

In 6A, I'm hoping to see Greenwood fight it out with Marion. I hear Marion is loaded and they seem to be taking care of business, so it should be a good match if they see each other!

In 5A, I don't think VV or Paragould will be touched. However, I did notice that Vilonia beat Harrison in 3 sets last night. I don't know what the story is behind that, but unless Vilonia is vastly improved, then that win just makes it that much more apparent how far ahead VV and Paragould are in the 5A...

[Vballfan]

Only a few Changes, don't really see this changing much so this will be my last ranking of the top teams.  Good luck to all teams in October as they get ready for the tourney.
7A:
1)Fayetteville
2) Bentonville
3) Har-Ber
4) Conway
5) FS Southside
Everyone else

Conway seems to have found their winning ways again, the 6-10 teams would be pretty competitive and hard to say who is really ahead of whom. Bryant has had a good year and deserves a mention but I expect like others have said for the finals to be rematches of the 7A West battles.

6A:
1) Greenwood
2) Marion
3) Russellville
Mountain Home has had a good year - Marion handled them with ease last night - I see this group of 3 well above the rest of the of the field.

5A)
1) Valley View
2) Paragould
Harrison, Batesville and maybe Pulaski Academy are the next group - but well below these two in my view.

I have to agree with you! It looks like it will probably be a Bentonville vs. Fayetteville State Championship match this year, although the Conway win over Greenwood did get my attention. Frankly, I don't know a lot about Conway, but I do know that Greenwood is VERY good this year, so Conway has to be playing pretty well to beat them. Har-Ber and Southside are both hard to read. Both have lots of talent, but there seem to be certain teams they can't compete with for whatever reasons.

In 6A, I'm hoping to see Greenwood fight it out with Marion. I hear Marion is loaded and they seem to be taking care of business, so it should be a good match if they see each other!

In 5A, I don't think VV or Paragould will be touched. However, I did notice that Vilonia beat Harrison in 3 sets last night. I don't know what the story is behind that, but unless Vilonia is vastly improved, then that win just makes it that much more apparent how far ahead VV and Paragould are in the 5A...

Conway is talented.  They have a very good back row  and some good hitters, they did lose their great setter from last year and are young in the middle at least when I saw them earlier in the season.  With 7A being in Conway - they will have the support and the talent for a good showing in the tourney.  I left out NLR - the leader in the 7A/6A East - they are talented and athletic - but I feel too inconsistent to compete at the top level in 7A.

Marion is very good -they have their best player back now and while I haven't seen Greenwood- I favor Marion to win it in 6A - Greenwood gets the nod in the rankings based on a good record in a better overall conference but Marion was there last year and I believe will be there again.

I agree Valley View and Paragould are in a class of their own.  I have seen Vilonia once but it was early in the year - I like Batesville and Beebe more but not as much as the top two.