Reversed in the Alola league, while all three boys get good placements (and Ash wins the whole tournament), Mallow and Lillie are eliminated rather early while Lana falls victim to The Worf Effect against Guzma. Ironically only Lillie, the most studious of the girls, has suffered the odd comical failure. Played completely straight in the class exercises however, which the boys (especially Ash) routinely blunder or get outshone by the girl students.
Ash has a Garchomp, Lillie has an Altaria, Mallow has a Flygon, and Lana has a Dragonair.
The focus characters are, in chronological order, Lana (SM005), Sophocles (SM006), Lillie (SM008), Kiawe (SM011), and Mallow (SM018).