There was no selection committee watching as Spring Grove won the YAIAA girls' soccer tournament title with a 4-2 victory over Central York at Northeastern High School on Friday night. Nor were there any sort of official judges. There wasn't any audition DVD in the making either.

That's not how the seeding process works for the District 3 tournament. The Rockets' effortless ball movement around the field does nothing to improve their status.

Their game-breaking speed and consistent ability to track down loose balls against the Panthers won't put Spring Grove in any better of a position entering next week's competition.

If it did, the YAIAA regular-season and tournament champions would certainly be seeded higher than No. 17 in the 26-team field.

The good news for the Rockets (17-3-2) is they look a lot like a team ready to contend with the district's best.

When the speed of the game picks up against teams like No. 16 Ephrata and No. 1 Cumberland Valley next week, Spring Grove should be ready to hang with them. The Rockets have several dangerous weapons up top and a tough defense that can battle with physical players as much as they can contain speedy opponents.

And in a year when the Susquehannock boys' team gave the YAIAA some added credibility by advancing to the PIAA Class AA semifinals, the Rockets have the personnel to accomplish something similar on the girls' side.

The strange part is they will have to do it by upsetting the top seed in the second round of the district tournament.

Even district officials recognize the current seeding process is flawed and will be moving away from it next season. But for this year's tournament, teams receive bonus points for earning wins against opponents that qualified for the state tournament in 2007, no matter how bad those teams were in 2008.

While that process puts Spring Grove lower than it should be, it also means the No. 1 team isn't necessarily the best squad in the tournament. Three losses didn't keep Cumberland Valley from getting the top seed, but a perfect 21-0 record and a Mid-Penn tournament title was only good enough for No. 8 spot for Hershey.

Foolish seeding practices or not, the Rockets still have to pick up some victories. Winning all three YAIAA tournament games by at least a two-goal margin this week was a good start.

"That was our main goal," Spring Grove coach Ashley Rohrbaugh said. "We put right in our rules to finish what we started. Two out of three years we were in the finals and we lost. It was time to finish.

"Knowing what we had with the girls, we knew if we played our style and everybody played up to their expectations, we could definitely be county champs."

There's still more left for Spring Grove to achieve. The clear cut champion of a league with a reputation of being the weakest in the district, the Rockets have an opportunity to represent.

They looked ready enough on Friday, putting forth the kind of performance that showed they were at the very least the class of the YAIAA. Now that they have gold medals to vouch for that achievement, they can focus on something even greater - and do it as an underdog, even if it is in name only.

"It gives them something else, almost a chip on their shoulder," Rohrbaugh said of the No. 17 seed. "They want to go out and prove a point."

Sean McLernon covers prep sports for the Daily Record/Sunday News. Reach him at smclernon@ydr.com or 771-2045.