Hard to believe that Wren at 14-6 and Clover at 13-5 both fell out of the rankings this week. Both deserve to be in the Top 15 for the final poll.

gotta look @ region strength also, clover split w/ nw & nw beat s aiken 1-0 in playoffs when s aiken should have won

wren played in weak region so did clover

s aiken should be ranked but were only 9-9 in tuffest region in state

hey even aiken a 6-16 only lost to ft.mill 1-0 in playoffs

r4 teams irmo & lex should be rankd 1 & 2

It looks like the 15 teams with the best records left after the first round are the ones ranked. Results driven ranking the final 2 weeks of the season. Top four are in the final four, etc. This is how it has normally been done in the past.

Clover beat Northwestern 4-1 in their first meeting and then tied them 0-0 (lost on PK's) in their second match. Any "soccer specific" tie-breaker would have given Clover the second seed in the region over Northwestern.

Clover goes to Irmo in the first round of the state playoffs and was winning the match 1-0 at the half before losing 3-1.

Clover played Fort Mill twice this year and scored six goals on the Lady Jackets. FM only gave up 16 goals in 23 games over the entire season and Clover got six of them.

I think, despite a rather week schedule, the lady Blue Eagles resume is strong enought to warrant a Top 15 finish over teams that ended the year with a sub-.500 record.

Clover had a good case for the rankings (Airport being the black eye), and more so does Wren. I understand the way they're doing it, though (and it's a thankless job). South Aiken lost to Hanna 3-0 who lost to Wren. R4 had 5 teams ranked at one time and R1 had 3. Wren, Clover, SA. Wren has a good W or two, Clover beat NW and scored on Ft Mill, and SA is the 3 seed in R4. All good points.

Who should be out?

A loss AWAY to 3A #5 Airport is a black eye?

Clover scored 6 goals against Fort Milll in two games. Wando and Lexington scored a combined 1 goal against Fort Mill in THREE games, and those two teams will probably play for the 4A state championship.

A little love for Clover?

I haven't seen Clover, and I am making no comment on them.

BUT, especially in girls high school soccer, there is a huge disparity in team quality. If you look at records and head-to-head, it becomes baffling. Teams go 15-1 and are slaughtered in that one loss and in the playoffs.

The reason is that all classifications have a handful of strong teams, then there is a drop off—with a middle level of teams that are very very similar.

I'll go with what I know, the rankings in AA/A girls after the top four all year have been a constant revolving door with teams being ranked or moving up in rankings AFTER being beaten in their classification by 8 or more goals. . .

Thus, ranking is a thankless task that defies any formula we try.

Getting 5 dropped on you IN A TOURNEY by a top five AAA when you want to be a top AAAA team may be good enough for your standards, but not mine. Losing 1-0 to the top AAA team (see Hanna) might be more convincing. The A teams don't help either. I think they're good, real good, but that one hurts as they have no ranked wins. Wren beat Hanna and Daniel (both currently ranked) and that's why i'd give them the nod.

W&E take out NW, we lost to #3 Irmo 1-0 #4 Dutch Fork 1-0 and #5 Summerville 2-1 in pks's.

Hurst maybe if Clover played a tougher schedule they might get a little love. All those goals on Fort Mill and none on Northwestern in the second match.

I can't take out who's not there! NW does tend to have one of the strongest nonconference schedule out there. It must stink to put these out there as someone is always fighting for the bottom two or three spots. If the teams would do their job, there wouldn't be any room for discussion

Ridge View has the stinky record, but beat (scrimmages are worthless) Myrtle Beach, Spring Valley, and Chapin. They also have all the "quality losses" one would need for such an argument.

James Island only, it seems, has the quality losses. I'd drop them for Wren.

First off, the "final rankings" won't be compiled until next Sunday.

Until then, let's take a look at Region 1-4A:

#13 T.L. Hanna (17-5, 9-1) lost to #9 Byrnes, 1-2, 4A 1st Round
Wren (14-6, 9-1) lost to #11 Spartanburg, 1-3, 4A 1st Round
Greenwood (11-7-1, 6-4) lost to #8 Mauldin, 0-4, 4A 1st Round
Easley (6-12-2, 4-6) lost to #6 Dorman, 1-6, 4A 1st Round

So, that's 0-4 in the First Round of the playoffs. Also, how did these teams do in the regular season vs. ranked 4A teams:

0-3, T.L. Hanna
1-3, Wren
0-4, Greenwood
0-2, Easley
1-12, TOTAL

My thoughts are that 1-4A was the weakest of the Upper State regions and for upward mobility in the future, some non-region wins vs. ranked 4A teams should go a long way. In fact, judging from the opening round postseason showings by T.L. Hanna and Wren, I would venture to say that the Yellow Jackets and Hurricanes would finish no better than fifth in Region 2-4A -- that's not a knock at all, but just proves how strong the conference with Dorman, Mauldin, Spartanburg, and Byrnes was this year.

Excellent explanation, Kyle. Also supports the arguments about ignoring regions in soccer. Regions are arbitrary and possibly don't serve any school or HS soccer well. . .

Kyle, Region 2-4A was no doubt strongest in the upstate, many thought they would get at least three teams into the Great 8 (they got 1).

W&E/Cantona, I realize Clover's schedule was not great but they had to play with the hand they were dealt. No invite to the Viking Cup robs them of three quality opponents. Hopefully they get the invite next year and then it is up to them to prove it on the field.

(W&E, can't make excuses for who wasn't there but rumor is "band or chorus commitment" may have had something to do with them yielding that many goals to Airport).

Hurst, that would explain a lot. I want an asterick by my Byrnes lost for *injuries. Heck, put one by the Eastside, Wren, and first Byrnes loss as well

Wren was ranked at one time (Beat them), so was South Aiken (beat them) and so was Greenwood (beat them twice). How are we supposed to get credit for these wins if you keep unranking them!!?!?!?! We also smoked ranked AAA #12 Daniel, beat #9 Flora, beat AA Walhalla (hey, they were ranked #9 at the time!), and beat Georgia AAA #9 Stephens County. If Fort Mill gets credit for the Charlotte connection, I want the same for my Georgia team! Shoot, I could argue the 12th spot since the only good W's West Ashley has are over the two disputed bottom dwellers!

Thankless job!

W&E, I don't know how much credit (if any) FM gets for playing Charlotte schools.

By the way, I thought Kyle did a very nice job of analyzing your situation.

How's that baby doing? Post more photos!

Taking out region opponents (our region arugment got screwed so there's does too!) and ourselves, who did Byrnes beat in AAAA that was ranked? Nobody. If Hanna sucks, you only look at AAAA schools, and you take out the "High and Mighty Region 2" smoke blowing, what have they got? Nada. Crap along side of us.

I have decided that, other than disputed Ridge View, Fort Mill only managed to beat 13-8 Spartanburg (who lost to previously ruled crap team Byrnes) by only 1 goal therefore they're crap, too.

I think the more we get run down, the more I can find ways to bring everyone with us! Man, and I tried to be complimentary at the beginning but somebody wants to drag us into this!

How do I attach pics, Hurst?

I now have a stupid to english dictionary and I found W&E was the author-talk about stupid. Excuse my vitriolic behavior. (Nice, and look it up W&E!) Offically my last post, see ya next year & tell radio I said hello!

You should have called me "buttface". That would have been more original and made you look less like an idiot (as hard as that may be)

Buttface,

I don't know how to attach pictures, I needed help getting my avatar up.

March 23: Aiken 1, Irmo 0. Does that mean Irmo sucks?

Hmmmmmm...interesting question. Sources say no since the self proclaimed "Greatest Coaching Genius Never" Ron Johnson orchestrated that win. Irmo was helpless against his power therefore omitted from my bitter evaluations.

I would like to add to my ongoing crap degate that the B-C boys are overrated. They are...

0-1 against ranked SCISA teams
0-1 against ranked AA teams
2-2 (ties don't count in MY evaluation) against ranked AAA teams
0-3 against ranked AAAA teams

They've been outscored 0-19 against the AAAA teams and 7-29 overall. Crap.