Recently in Sean McLernon Category

Did you figure out there was a new No. 1? Did you? If not, that's OK, because I'm telling you right not. There's a new No. 1.

The young Northeastern boys' volleyball team has always had the talent, and lately they have been showing a great amount of poise under pressure against the district's best. It has helped them follow-up an undefeated league season and YAIAA tournament title with a District 3 Class AA crown, and established themselves as one of the favorites heading into the state tournament.

There are plenty of other changes from last week's rankings as well. See them all after the jump and add your take in the comments section.

All 10 teams are the same from last week, but almost none of them are in the same spot, as the postseason has begun to separate the contenders from the pretenders.

That doesn't mean that some other baseball, softball or even volleyball squads out there don't have a shot at cracking the top 10 before the season is through. This coming week will be their chance to shine as district play heats up in those sports.

Full rankings and analysis after the jump. As always, your input in the comments section is encouraged.

The Susquehannock softball gained more than just a league tournament championship this week, according to coach Dave Pollick.

"When you have the end of your regular season and districts don't start until the 19th, there's 10 days or so of dead air space," Pollick said following his team's 2-0 win over West York on Wednesday to earn the title. "You're scrambling around trying to find someone to scrimmage with. I don't care how you scrimmage, it's not a game. You do not get the reps. You do not get the game experience.

"We just had a great week of prep. In fact, I'm so happy with our prep work now that we're going to have dinner at my house tomorrow and take Friday off. I feel we're ready and I'm not going to try and jam something down their throats. So this tournament is wonderful."

It seems strange there hadn't been a league tournament in more than two decades for baseball and softball, but the important thing is league officials finally figured out that such a competition is best for fans and teams alike.

The Kennard-Dale girls' lacrosse team has gone out of its way to play top-level opponents this season.

Penn Manor, Manheim Township, Hempfield -- the Rams said: Bring it on. And it was brought. Kennard-Dale lost all three of those games. It's the main reason why the Rams are the No. 6 seed in the district tournament while a Susquehannock team that lost to Kennard-Dale twice is No. 4.

Both the Warriors and the Rams won home games and moved on to the quarterfinals, but Kennard-Dale will have to hit the road for Saturday's matchup against Lewisburg. Of course, if playing three of the top teams in the region helps the Rams get that much better, maybe it won't matter where they are playing.

"Before our season, our coach (Kelly Wetzel) sat down with the athletic director and scheduled some really tough teams for us to play, just so we know where we stand," said Hana Krechel (above), who scored six goals in Kennard-Dale's first-round win over Central York on Tuesday. "Taking some losses like that, at first it was frustrating and it was difficult, but I think we're good at picking ourselves up.

"After a big loss, we would talk as a team and the captains would get together and talk and we would say what we did wrong. Even though we have those three losses, they really made a big difference in our wins and they helped us to get better as a team. Playing good teams is really making us a lot better."

It would be tough to argue against the Central York boys' tennis team being No. 1 in these rankings, especially after the way the Panthers dominated the District 3 Class AAA tournament and easily won their second straight title.

Not only did they take down the top teams from the Mid-Penn and Lancaster-Lebanon leagues, they did it without losing a single match. Nobody came remotely close to beating them. So yeah, they're at the top again this week.

The Northeastern volleyball team (shown above celebrating victory over Central York) moves up, as does the Susquehannock softball team and the Northeastern baseball team to round out the top six. Fresh off its YAIAA championship victory, the Dallastown girls' soccer team makes its first appearance in the rankings.

Full rankings and rationale after the jump. The comments section awaits your input.

No more practices in parking lots or wearing uniforms on which the school name wasn't printed. Susquehannock girls' lacrosse coach Kristin Kowalczyk said just having her team play as an official varsity sport this year has been a huge thrill for her and her players.

The Warriors just happen to have had a great deal of success on the field as well.

Susquehannock closed the regular season with a win over York Suburban on Tuesday to improve to 13-2 overall. Its only two losses came against a talented Kennard-Dale team. For the first time ever, their season will continue with the 16-team District 3 tournament, which begins on Tuesday.

It's a much better situation than in years past when the Warriors and the rest of the YAIAA squads played as club teams (like in 2006, which was when the photo above was taken). Kowalczyk said the team's quote of the year is "living the dream." The Warriors can make the dream that much sweeter by making a run in the district tournament.

The toughest part of that task will be playing against teams across the river in Lancaster, many of which have had varsity programs in place for several years.

There are plenty of serious contenders. Central York-South Western softball comes to mind, as does Dallastown-Spring Grove baseball and even York Suburban-Eastern York track. I'm sure there are others, and you should feel free to add any you can think of in the comments section.

But right now, the best and most heated of the spring sports rivalries in the YAIAA might very well be Dallastown-Central York girls' soccer, and the two teams will square off Wednesday with a spot in the YAIAA tournament title game on the line.

Following a 3-1 quarterfinal victory over Eastern York, I coyly mentioned to Central's Chelsea Clemens that she and her teammates are pretty familiar with their next opponent.

"Yes, rivals," Clemens responded with a smile. "They came to our games and they cheered for the other teams. But that's OK. It's all in fun."

It's a little strange to be talking about basketball in May, but this piece by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker caught my eye and I thought it was worth sharing.

The article talks about how underdogs in sports have a much better chance of beating heavy favorites just by adopting an unorthodox or unexpected strategy. But the part I found the most intriguing involved the advantages of using a full-court press in basketball all the time. The YAIAA team that immediately came to mind was the West York girls, which won the league tournament title this year and was known for its relentless pressure.

Gladwell writes about a girls' team of 12-year-olds with limited experience that made it to the national championships by sticking to a strategy of non-stop full-court pressure on defense:

It was as if there were a kind of conspiracy in the basketball world about the way the game ought to be played, and Ranadivé thought that that conspiracy had the effect of widening the gap between good teams and weak teams. Good teams, after all, had players who were tall and could dribble and shoot well; they could crisply execute their carefully prepared plays in their opponent's end. Why, then, did weak teams play in a way that made it easy for good teams to do the very things that made them so good?

Rain postponed the District 3 team tennis tournament, but couldn't halt Central York's reign at the top of these rankings. Or something.

Not too much has changed from last week's rankings, as most of the top teams are getting into a groove leading up to the postseason.

There are a couple new developments, however. For the fourth consecutive week there is a different baseball team in the rankings. A Susuquehannock softball team that has rediscovered its winning ways moves up a spot (watch highlights from the Warriors' recent victory over New Oxford above). But that's about it.

Full rankings and rationale after the jump. Chime in with your take in the comments section.

The Red Lion boys' lacrosse team has played a total of 14 varsity games in the history of the program. The Lions have won all 14 of them during their debut campaign this season. I asked coach Bill Middleton if he was a little surprised his team had been absolutely perfect so far this season. Middleton paused and then started to chuckle before answering: "To say no would kind of be an understatement."

Middleton said the expectations for the Lions have been high from the beginning and the talent and hard work of the players and the coaching staff has helped Red Lion achieve nothing but success. They now have their eyes on a District 3 title.

"I don't want to sound too arrogant and cocky in saying it, but I'm not surprised because I believe in this team -- especially with the leadership and the kids that we have," Middleton said.

The coach said two key elements to Red Lion's perfect season have been depth and scouting and both should help the Lions in the 16-team district tournament, which starts May 12. In the latest LaxPower computer rankings, the Lions are No. 4 in Central Pennsylvania.

With the score tied, the momentum in Spring Grove's possession and her team still a goal away from securing at least a share of the Division I title, Central York coach Liz Critchfield reminded her team how good she believes they are.

"I told them that Central is up here and we need to stay up here," Critchfield said, holding her hand about five feet above the ground. "We're the No. 1 team here in York County. Everybody is a good team, don't get me wrong, but these girls played hard."

Senior Kim Podolsky (above) went on to score a goal in double overtime to give the Panthers the 2-1 victory and a piece of the division title. It was the culmination of Central's strong play in the extra sessions, and not unlike what the Panthers have achieved over the second half of the season.

Central turned things around after a 2-4 start, going 11-0-1 since to take a 12-game unbeaten streak into next week's YAIAA tournament.

York Suburban baseball coach Josh Leik made it clear after Wednesday's 11-2 victory over Eastern York that his team has enough talent to achieve big things this season.

"Our entire lineup, top to bottom, anything they do doesn't surprise me," Leik said. "It's not the first time they have gone out against a quality pitcher and just started hitting the ball and scoring runs... I've never felt like these guys faced a pitcher that they couldn't handle."

So what has kept the Trojans from running away with the Division III title and losing five of their first 12 games?

"I think for us, it has to do with our mental approach out there," Leik said. "The only times we've been hurt this year is when we haven't been mentally ready to hit the ball."

Wednesday's performance suggests those days may be behind the Trojans.

Plenty of success from the top-ranked teams means stability at the top this week.

The top five from last week's rankings remains the same. There is some change in the bottom half of the rankings with a couple of new teams making the cut.

All records are as of Saturday morning. Full rankings and rationale after the jump. Be sure to jump in with your take on the rankings in the comments section.

Moving to six football classifications? The WPIAL won't have any of that.

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article linked above:

A recent survey showed that area schools would rather end the season with the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League championships than compete in six classifications beginning with the 2010 season as proposed by the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association.

This could be enough to convince some on-the-fence voters to cast their vote to maintain the status-quo. I can't imagine teams from across the state would want a PIAA tournament without WPIAL teams, like the Thomas Jefferson squad that ran all over District 3 Class AAA champion West York in the state semifinals (see picture above).