Girls tennis is finally starting to become a popular read again.

Thanks to the efforts of parents and coaches around the county these girls are getting the publicity they deserve.

Valencia has been consistently good all season long and that has kept this team in the top 10 rankings.

Here are 10 things I know about girls tennis around the county:

1. Its fun when an unranked team gets an upset win over ranked team. There has been a lot of this happening lately. For example: Woodbridge beat Laguna Hills, Northwood beat Santa Margarita, Mater Dei beat Sage Hill and El Dorado beat Esperanza.

2. There is a complicated formula to get into the top 10 of the girls tennis standings. A lot of variables come into play. Here are a few of them: strength of schedule, overall record and how many ranked or quality teams have you beaten? Want a quick way to get into the top 10, beat a ranked team.

3. It seems that there are three tiers in tennis: tier 1 (Dana Hills and Corona del Mar), tier 2 (University, Valencia and Troy – when healthy and fully loaded) and tier 3 (everyone else).

4. Here two ranked teams on the rise in tier 3: Northwood (might be one of the better teams in this tier – at least more consistent and not scared to play quality teams) and El Dorado (some people thought they were really down this year, but a quality win over Esperanza proved otherwise).

5. Now the flip side – here is a ranked team on the decline in their 3: Mater Dei (already lost twice this week to Northwood and Los Alamitos – although there was some shady business with this one sending its Junior Varsity team).

6. There are quite a few quality teams outside of the top 10 that are ready to break in, all they need is a big win: Laguna Beach (6-1 overall, could do so with a win over University next week), Newport Harbor (6-3 overall, had a big win against Troy this week) and Los Alamitos (might be better than most people had anticipated).

7. There are also some teams that win and lose some big games, all they need to do is be a little more consistent: Santa Margarita (lost to Troy and beat Laguna Hills as well as Los Alamitos), Esperanza (lost to El Dorado and has beaten everyone else), Sage Hill (lost to Mater Dei and beat Woodbridge, 11-7, Newport Harbor, 12-6, and Los Alamitos, 11-7), and Laguna Hills (lost to Santa Margarita and beat Mission Viejo, 11-4, and Tesoro, 10-8).

8. Capistrano Valley has an interesting team. The Cougars might be the kings of tier 4, if there was one. Despite losing to all of them, I like that they are not scared of going up against some of the better teams in the county (Laguna Beach, Newport Harbor, St. Margaret’s and Dana Hills). In fact Capo might have one of the toughest schedules in the county. A tough nonleague schedule should prepare the Cougars for a league and another return to CIF playoffs.

9. If you make the effort, then I will make the effort. Here are few scores that have been reported: Corona del Mar defeated Laguna Hills, 12-6, Laguna Beach beat Calvary Chapel, 14-4, Northwood beat Trabuco Hills, 18-0, Esperanza beat Marina, 14-4, Sage Hills beat Calvary Chapel, 16-2, and Valencia beat Pacifica, 16-2. Don’t mean to be picky, but it would be nice to get overall records as well, only one that reported theirs was the Lightning (7-1).

10. The best game of the young season is finally upon us and I will be there to cover it. No. 2 Corona del Mar will be on the road against No. 3 University on Wednesday at 3 p.m. Here is how I see it playing out: The Sea Kings will win the doubles match-up and the Trojans will be victorious on the singles end. The key will be the games scores within the match and someone will have to find a way to get an upset victory, maybe a No. 3 over a No. 2 in singles.

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