GIRLS POWER RANKINGS — Big win at Fortuna keeps Tigers at No. 1

By barstoolfanatics on January 10, 2026 • ( Leave a comment )

Ray Hamill/HumboldtSports.com

By Ray Hamill — The H-DNL girls teams continue to feature prominently in the MaxPreps North Coast Section rankings this week, with four of the nine league programs in the top 30 out of 146 schools and seven of them in the top 55.

Unfortunately, however, the MaxPreps computers apparently didn’t see Friday night’s game at Fortuna High, when the Arcata Tigers won 64-34 with a statement performance.

Despite Friday’s game, as of Saturday evening MaxPreps still has the Huskies as the highest-ranked local team at No. 18 overall, two spots ahead of the Tigers.

No. 23 St. Bernard’s and No. 29 Eureka both also feature in the top 30, followed by No. 39 Ferndale, No. 52 McKinleyville and No. 55 Del Norte.

The Hoopa Warriors are No. 89, while South Fork is No. 126.

St. Bernard’s (Division 5) and Ferndale (Division 6) are both also No. 1 in their respective Divisions in the NCS, with the Cats also the No. 3 D-6 team in all of California and the Crusaders the No. 4 D-5 program in the state.

The Arcata girls also feature near the top in Division 3, coming in at No. 3 in the NCS and No. 8 in California.

This week’s Humboldt Sports Power Rankings differs slightly from the MaxPreps rankings.

Arcata remains in the top spot for the second straight week — and judging by Friday’s big win, can there be any doubt? — followed by St. Bernard’s at No. 2.

Both teams continued to take care of business this week as they began conference play.

The Crusaders won a key Little 4 showdown against Ferndale on Friday night, while the Tigers posted a pair of very impressive road wins at Del Norte and Fortuna, which puts them in pole position just one week into conference play.

Don’t count out Eureka, however, after the Loggers jumped 14 spots in this week’s NCS rankings, the biggest move by any local team.

The Loggers opened the Big 5 with a dominating win over McKinleyville and are quietly positioning themselves for a run at the conference title.

The Eureka girls move up one spot in this week’s Power Rankings into a tie with Fortuna at No. 3.

It was a tough week for the Ferndale girls, who dropped back-to-back games against Fortuna and St. Bernard’s.

But head coach Chris Ardrey had every reason to be happy with how his players responded to the Fortuna loss — in which they scored a season-low in points — with a much better performance at SB, despite the loss.