Sierra headlines first CCCSIA women's basketball poll of 2018

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - In 1999, Sierra College won its only state women's basketball championship. Nineteen years later, the Wolverines find themselves as a leading contender again as the No. 1-ranked team in the first 2018 California Community College Sports Information Association State Top 20 Poll.

Sierra is the last of the unbeaten with a perfect 21-0 record and lead the Big 8 Conference at 9-0. The Wolverines are beating their opponents by an average of 26 or more points per game. The closest anyone has played them all season is back on Nov. 19 when No. 7 rated Fresno City lost by 10, 105-95.

Sierra received 10 out of 15 first-place votes. Mt. San Jacinto (21-1) is at No. 2 and sporting a 19-game win streak. The Eagles avenged its only loss to fellow PCAC North Division foe Palomar (19-1)  by ending the No. 3 Comets 18-game win streak to start the season in an 85-69 win last week.

Central Valley Conference members College of the Sequoias (20-2) and Merced (19-3) are No. 4 and No. 5, respectively. Merced defeated COS, 66-63, on Jan. 10 and lead the CVC by a game over the Lady Giants. City College of San Francisco (18-3) chimes in at No. 6 and currently leads the Coast Conference North Division. After Fresno (18-4) at No. 7, a South team reappears at No. 8 in Orange Empire Conference leader Irvine Valley
(17-3) at No. 8. 

Two-time defending state champ Mt. San Antonio (17-5) is No. 9, but that could change as No. 10 East Los Angeles (14-6) upended the Mounties in a South Coast Conference North buzzer-beater, 69-68 on Friday night. A perennial conference champion, Mt. SAC is in a rare situation where it finds itself in third place in the SCC North behind ELAC and No. 12 LA Trade Tech (15-5), both off to 2-0 divisional starts.

Ventura (16-6) is ahead of LATT at No. 11 and once again tops the Western State North. The current top 20 is an even split between the South and North regions with 10 teams from each. 

(Robert Lewis for the CCCSIA)