- Mercer Island
- Bellevue
- Auburn Mountainview
- Curtis
- Newport
- Auburn Riverside
- Enumclaw
- Puyallup
- Peninsula
- Lakes 10. Emerald Ridge (tie)
The regular season is over and now we wait for the State tournament to begin on Wednesday Nov. 7th. Not much action besides the wild card last week to determine the last three entrants to State. Mercer Island remains at No. 1 and most likely will be the top seed at State. Bellevue traveled to Enumclaw and prevailed with a 14 to 9 victory over the Hornets. Nothing to write home about but good enough to keep the No. 2 ranking. The Lions of Auburn Mountainview were idle ( I think) and stay put at No. 3. The Curtis Vikings hosted Bainbridge and coasted to an 18 to 5 victory in their final prep for State. Newport remains very quiet at No . 5. I guess we only have to wait a few more days to see if their lofty ranking is deserved. The Auburn Riverside Ravens are still No. 6 and can't wait to make up for last years' performance at State and move up in the final rankings. Enumclaw had their final regular season game against Bellevue which didn't help their win/loss record but gives them valuable experience heading into State. Roosevelt's wild card implosion allows Enumclaw to move up one spot to No. 7. Puyallup also moves up one spot to No. 8. Their late season surge secured a 2nd place finish in the West and the Vikings look ready to possibly make some noise at State. The Peninsula Seahawks were able to win a tiebreaker with Lakes to earn third place in the West division and avoid the wild card mayhem. Peninsula jumps back into the rankings at No. 9. Emerald Ridge Jaguars must have had their Wheaties prior to the wild card because they looked like a team on a mission as they powered past Stadium, Roosevelt and Bainbridge to advance to State. Welcome back to the rankings at No. 10, but your not alone. Lakes lost the tiebreaker to Peninsula which placed them in the wild card. Once in the wild card, the Lancers ran the table with wins over Kentridge, Bainbridge, and Roosevelt. Lakes advances to State and shares the No. 10 ranking this week. For the Roosevelt Roughriders, OUCH! Everything looked good until game your second game of the wild card and then it just seemed to evaporate. Youth combined with playoff pressure often leads to heartbreak. Still not sure what Roosevelt was doing in the wild card, but their inability to closeout games proved costly and there will be no memorable State tournaments moments for Roosevelt this year. An overtime victory over Roosevelt secured a spot at State, but no spot in the rankings this week. Bainbridge, welcome to State. No one really gave the Spartans a chance, but it doesn't matter what others believe as long as you believe in yourself. It's been a tough season for Bainbridge but that is all behind them with a come from behind victory over Roosevelt. Enjoy every minute of your State experience. Congratulations!
The path to winning is filled with obstacles and many of them are mental. Water Polo may be physically challenging, but it's not overly complicated. The team that consistently brings a high level of focus with execution of the fundamentals both offensively and defensively usually wins. Throw in a spectacular play or two, some clock management down the stretch, and well placed timeouts and a 2012 champion will be crowned.
Polo On!
(The Committee made an error on the original posting this week and erroneously stated that Emerald Ridge defeated Lakes in the wild card. These teams did not play in the Wild Card. Both teams were undefeated in the Wild Card Tournament and advance to State. The Committee's error left Lakes out of the original rankings which would not have been the case had the error not been made. My sincere apologies to the Lakes Lancers.)
Fairly close to what the state tournament seeding is. If the Wild Card showed anything its going to be an exciting state tournament. In order as voted by the state coaches:
ReplyDelete1. Mercer Island
2. Auburn Mountainview
3. Bellevue
4. Curtis
5. Auburn Riverside
6. Newport
7. Enumclaw
8. Puyallup
9. Peninsula
10. Lakes
11. Emerald Ridge
12. Bainbridge Island
How is everything thinking these rankings will finish?
I think the top 6 will stay in top 6...but the kids need to stay focused focused focused. Any of the top 6 could be the champs.
ReplyDeleteWill you be doing a playoff handicapper this year?
ReplyDeleteYes, I'm planning on posting some sort of handicapper tomorrow 11/6.
DeleteLee Griffin and Newport have the talent to beat any team if they want to. Its just a matter of executing and i think they will make a good run at state. Possibly win.
ReplyDeleteYes, but I think a team with more all around talent throughout the team will be successful in the tournament. Curtis is a very strong team and each player has a good amount of talent and together have the ability to beat any team. Also both Auburn Riverside and Auburn Mountainview have strong players and both these teams could definitely beat anyone at the state tournament, and most likely some of the players from these teams will make the all state team.
ReplyDeleteGood point those are some really talented teams but i cant think of that many players who are at Griffin's level defensively and offensively. In fact i havnt seen a player match his skillset in Washington and even Oregon. Newport has been very strong with him in the game aswell, coming up very close to Bellevue and Mercer Island. It would be interesting to see how they can matchup against some of the south powers like Curtis and Auburn Mountainview even Auburn Riverside and Enumclaw who have a very strong team rather than a very strong individual.
DeleteWould the coaches be open to have a North and South All Star team that play each other in November / December? We heard Oregon say last year that they wish they could have their winning State team play the winning Washington State. How awesome would that be?!?!
ReplyDeleteYeah that sounds awesome. Something else which is very unlikely but would be nice to see is Washington All-Stars vs.Oregon All-Stars.
DeleteThat would be fabulous to bring this to the next level like that. What is needed to make that happen?
DeleteAlso, one player does not make a team. I see a lot of strong, smart players on most of the teams. Let's wait for State to see how it all pans out. Better to not get ahead of ourselves here.
Before we start setting up games with Oregon, we need to get our own house in order. Let's establish the rules of entry to the state tournament, what the tie breakers are, how the seedings are determined, who makes the wildcard, how tournament opponents are assigned, and how cross over games are scheduled and applied to seedings. Seems like a lot of this is quite subjective right now. Should be consistent across divisions. We can do better if we want to see the sport rise to the next level.
ReplyDeleteGetting water polo to be a WIAA sport would be great to. How can we try to make this happen?
DeleteIt is so frustrating isn't it? How do we make this happen? Anyone?
ReplyDeleteBecoming a WIAA sport should be a focus after this league merger gets cleaned up a little more.
ReplyDeleteMore automatic state berths based on a ranking system like this would be beneficial for teams that are obviously good yet miss out on state (Roosevelt this year, Bainbridge last year)due to rules rather than talent. The wild card tournament should determine the last two seeds at most.
Tighter reffing would be good for the game as well, a lot of what players get away with in state would not fly at major tournaments like Rose cup.
That being said, Newport will probably surprise and win it all, they almost won it all last year in a tougher league and any player that could slow Lee down is now out of high school.
Hello Water Polo fans. If you want to make positive statements about players or teams go right ahead, but please no derogatory comments about teams or individual players.
ReplyDeleteQuestion for the committee. If becomig a WIAA sport will benefit the sport in Washington and open up the game to more schools, why hasnt anyone taken any action to try and fulfill this? Youll probably say you should ask the league officials, and that is what anyones response is but really who ever is running the league needs to take some kind of step to do this. So far there have been none.
ReplyDeleteI don't know whether or not league officials have tried to work on making water polo a WIAA sport. My guess is that the topic has been dicussed with the WIAA at some point over the years. One obstacle is that so few schools actually have a water polo team. It would be very difficult to get WIAA status when less than 3% of the state's high schools participate. Certainly it would make sense for the league administrator to have a discussion with the WIAA, but we need to find ways to grow the sport before the WIAA will ever give the topic any serious consisderation.
ReplyDelete