It's been a pretty good year for girls soccer in the Tri-Cities. Not only in high school, but at the club level, too.

For our purposes, I'll stick to high school soccer though.

In the CBBN 4A, Richland, as expected, is in the mix for another league championship. What wasn't expected was that Moses Lake would be right there with them. The Chiefs have put up some truly impressive wins. One week after being Chiawana on the road, they beat the Bombers in a shootout at home.

But Moses Lake is going to have to travel back to Richland. If there is a road to the league title, it certainly goes through Bomber Field, and the Chiefs have a chance to make a major statement with their first-ever league title.

But the Bombers, of course, will have something to say about that.

In the CBBN 3A, the league is as exciting as many of the coaches had predicted. Southridge is ranked No. 1 in the state and is still undefeated, but they've certainly been put to the test several times.

Three of the Suns league matches — twice against West Valley and Kamiakin — have been decided by one goal, and another — against Hanford — went to a shootout.

Southridge leads the league at 9-0, Kamiakin is next at 7-2. Then Hanford and West Valley are tied at 6-3. Obviously, each team has their own particular strengths and weaknesses, but as far as talent goes, there's not much separating these four teams.

And a lot of coaches have been talking about Pasco and how much the Bulldogs have improved.

I'm really looking forward to the playoffs and seeing which teams make it out of districts and regionals. The CBBN gets four berths to regionals this year, and the GSL will get two. From what I've been hearing from the coaches, the GSL might be down a bit from last year. So conceivably, the CBBN 3A could sweep all three berths into the 3A state playoffs.

But there's a long way between here and there.

In the CWAC, East Valley appears to be the best team far and away, but there's a pretty tight battle going on for the remaining two spots to the state playoffs between the CWAC and the Great Northern League. Prosser, Othello and Selah are in a jumble for second place, and it should be a great finish.

East Valley may be the top team, but how about Prosser and that 1-2 punch of theirs. Helen Petersen (27 goals) and Madison Moore (20) are the top two scorers in the league. Still, there's something to be said for balance. East Valley has seven girls with four goals or more.

In the SCAC, La Salle tops the league at 4-0, but Connell and Naches Valley are one game back. Kiona-Benton is still in the mix for a first-round home game at districts, which the top four teams will get.

Connell forward Marcie Hawkins has been one of the pleasant surprises of the league. She's currently tied with Kiona-Benton's Taylor Brown for second in the SCAC with 13 goals.