According to the little seeding numbers next to the schools, Williamsville is the favorite to win its own girls soccer sectional for the second straight year and make another appearance at the state tournament.

The problem with those numbers is they were determined way back on April 16, when the weather was still horrible and some teams had only a handful of games under their belts.

Now, with the postseason firing up across the state, those numbers don't mean much. Urbana Uni-High (No. 4) beat No. 2 Warrensburg-Latham. No. 5 Monticello tied both Uni-High and Williamsville, and the Sages had a 2-0 lead on Warrensburg before the Cardinals rallied to win. No. 3 LSA shut down Uni-High.

Who's the real favorite? As clich© as it sounds, it's whoever is playing the best.

"Any of the top five or six has a chance to take the sectional. With everybody's record at the time when we voted, it seemed like we were a one- or two-seed. But if we voted right now, I'm not so certain we'd be the two-seed," Warrensburg coach Kevin Emery said. "I wouldn't be surprised statewide if lower seeds come up to bite the higher seeds."

Williamsville (12-8) earned its top seed last year and rode a nine-game scoreless streak to state. But with no dominating performances on the board this season, the sectional is a free-for-all. No one seems to be complaining.

"Personally, I kind of like it wide open. It's more exciting," LSA coach Jeff Salefski said.

LSA came from nowhere two years ago to win a sectional and eventually finish fourth at state. All but two members of this year's squad were around for that run.

"They know what's at stake, the pressure that's involved. Right now, I'm seeing them ready to go," Salefski said. "They're excited to be starting here and anxious to see what happens."

The Lions don't have any trouble putting the ball into net, as evidenced by Hillary King recently reaching the 100-goal plateau for her career. So naturally, Salefski is focusing on the team's play at the other end.

"Defense, defense, defense," he said. "A lot of times these games end up being very close, 2-1 type affairs."

Monticello and coach Lois Cryder are taking a different approach into their sectional opener against Uni-High.

"We just need to score a little more consistently. That's kind of been our problem," she said. "We've done that on some occasions. We had many opportunities at St. Teresa, and we were only able to put two in. I don't know how many shots we had on goal. But if we can convert, then I like our chances, because we certainly do get along very well, and I don't think they're ready to be done next week or anytime soon."

Class AA

MacArthur is the No. 5 seed at the Eisenhower Regional. The Generals will play Danville in their opener. Mount Zion and host Eisenhower will meet for the right to play Urbana in the regional semifinals.

Mattoon and Charleston will meet in the Mattoon Regional semifinal. The winner will likely have to beat top-seeded Chatham Glenwood for the title and a trip to the Quincy Sectional.

Todd Engle can be reached at tengle@herald-review.com or 421-7970.