Prep Girls’ Soccer- The Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union (IGHSAU) released their first top 15 rankings of the 2025 girls’ soccer season and last year’s champions are not the favorites heading into the season.
Class 1A
It was a bit of a shock when Nevada, as the #4-seed, shutdown the #2-seed Denver 2-0 in last year’s Class 1A championship. Despite the loss last year, Denver sits atop the preseason rankings with Nevada and Treynor flanking at the #2 and #3 slots, respectively.
Beyond the shakeup, last year’s top teams are scattered amongst the top nine for the preseason spots with the sole exception of Des Moines Christian, who did not qualify for the state tournament a season ago.
Class 2A
Waverly-Shell Rock was ousted from the quarterfinals in last year’s state tournament by North Scott in an upset. The experts expect that to fuel the Go-Hawks this season as they sit atop the mountain with 2024’s champion, Dallas Center-Grimes at #2.
Despite winning just nine games last year, Xavier enters as the #3 team in this preseason breakdown with their sophomore phenoms from a year ago returning. Macie Herting and Reese Komenda combined for 20 goals and 50 points, and they return their goalie Lani Kunz, who tabbed a save percentage of 88.7% for the year.
North Scott is ranked back at #10 and North Polk finds themselves sitting at #6 after a 19-2 season was spoiled in the championship game by the Mustangs.
Class 3A
The wildly competitive Class 3A will again be shaping up to be an entertaining race towards the championship after Bettendorf surprised everyone as the #7-seed and defeated another shocking squad, the #5-seed Valley, 3-1, for the Class 3A championship.
Even with that being said, Ankeny will enter the year as the #1 team followed by Valley and Waukee, respectively, and Bettendorf back at the #4-slot. For a change in the program, #13 Dowling Catholic and #15 Prairie are ranked to start the year despite both teams ending last year three games under 0.500.
The Maroons return a young team from a season ago with all their goal-scorers coming back and both goalies return inside the pipes as their defense ranked 15th in Class 3A in goals allowed. Prairie is in a similar position with an offense that struggled to produce last year but with both goalies making a return with save percentages at 75% or better.
More
For a full list of the rankings, click on this link: IGHSAU Preseason Soccer Rankings