Warriors move to top of volleyball rankings

Daily Staff report -- sports@nvdaily.com

The Northern Virginia Daily Sports staff collaborated to create a football top 10 list. Each staffer voted, with 10 points being awarded to the top ranked team, nine to the No. 2 team and so on. Numbers in parenthesis indicate where each team was last week.

1. Sherando (1, tie), 15-5, 7-1 Northwestern -- For weeks Sherando has played second-fiddle to Strasburg because of the Rams' 19-match winning streak. But the Warriors have an 11-match win streak of their own -- with wins over James Wood, Millbrook and Musselman -- during which they've lost only three sets. It's too impressive to ignore the Northwestern's regular-season champs.

2. Strasburg (1, tie), 19-1, 10-0 Bull Run -- It's quite impressive that Strasburg won every match of the season since it's opening-night loss to Sherando, but the Rams needed all five sets against Madison County and Clarke County to close out the regular season with wins.

3. James Wood (4), 14-6, 6-2 Northwestern -- James Wood repaid Millbrook for its loss earlier in the season, and took care of business against Handley on Wednesday night. They've locked up the district's second seed.

4. Millbrook (3), 15-4, 4-3 Northwestern -- If Millbrook and James Wood could play 10 matches against each other, they might very well split the series five matches apiece. Both have talent; both have heart.

5. Stonewall Jackson (5, tie), 9-9, 5-3 Shenandoah -- Setter Whitney Wilkins has returned after being out sick for a week. Stonewall will need her tonight against Page County as both teams vie for the third seed in the district tournament.

6. Clarke County (5, tie), 11-8, 6-3 Bull Run -- Molly Keesling had a match-high 15 kills in a 3-2 loss to Bull Run champion Strasburg. The Eagles are heating up at just the right time.

7. Central (7), 6-12, 2-7 Shenandoah -- Brea Hinegardner leads the Falcons with 56 kills and Ashley Bodge has 57 assists. Traveling to Luray tonight, Central may need a bit more production if it's to end the regular season strong.

8. Handley (8, tie), 6-13, 1-7 Northwestern -- Though Handley lost to both Sherando and James Wood in three sets this week, the Judges played hard enough to go into Monday's play-in game at Skyline feeling good.

9. Skyline (8, tie), 6-12, 1-6 Northwestern -- Two important games face the Hawks: Monday's play-in game against Handley is more important than tonight's against Millbrook.

10. Warren County (10), 1-18, 0-7 Evergreen -- When they last played Brentsville, the Wildcats had a 95 percent serving rating. Perhaps lightning can strike twice in the Wildcats' regular-season finale.