|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
The 10th-seeded Gunn boys volleyball team upset host San Mateo, the No. 7 seed, in the first round of the Central Coast Section Division II playoffs Monday morning.
The Titans (6-6) advance into the quarterfinals, where they play at SCVAL De Anza Division champion and No. 2 seeded Monta Vista (12-0) at 7 p.m. Tuesday.
Gunn, which finished third in the SCVAL El Camino Division, beat San Mateo, 25-17, 25-17, 25-12 in a match that began at 11 a.m.
The Bearcats (10-2) finished third in the Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division in their last full season.
Monta Vista is the defending CCS Division I and NorCal champion. The Matadors swept Bellarmine, which had won two of the previous three Division I titles, in 2019.
Gunn, in its first appearance in the CCS tournament, relied on a balanced attack. Devin Shim led the Titans with 11 kills, followed by Boris Bukchin with 10 and Zach Chang with nine.
Setter Sebastian Caldera recorded 29 assists for the Titans.
In Division I, Menlo-Atherton fell to host Independence 25-12, 25-20, 25-20. The Bears finished the season with a 4-3 record.
Independence (9-3) moves on to meet No. 1 seed Los Gatos at Raymond J. Fisher Middle School at 7 p.m.
Beach volleyball
Had the Tokyo Olympics been held last summer, former Stanford superstar Kerri Walsh Jennings and her teammate, Brooke Sweat, would have participated.
An extra year has given their competition new life and following the Sochi 4-star tournament in Russia over the weekend, Walsh Jennings and Sweat are on the outside looking in.
Americans Sarah Sponcil (UCLA grad) and Kelly Claes (USC grad) won their first gold medal of the World Tour, passing Walsh Jennings and Sweat in the race for an Olympic berth.
Former Stanford All-American Alix Klineman and teammate April Ross lead the race for one of two quota spots reserved for the United States. Sponcil and Claes beat them in Sochi too.
Walsh Jennings, who won her first World Tour medal in 2001, and Sweat have a chance to recover this weekend in Osteava, Czech Republic.
While the Olympic ranking list will be released June 14, the final chance to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics is through one of the five Continental Cup finals June 21-27.
Klineman and Ross are currently No. 1 in the World Provisional Olympic rankings with 9,400 points. Claes and Sponcil are ranked sixth with 7,120 points, just ahead of Walsh Jennings and Sweat’s 6,960 points. Up to 800 points are awarded in each tournament.
Men’s water polo
A feature on Stanford grad Drew Holland has been posted on the USA Water Polo site. Robert Nilsen writes about his journey from the San Francisco Bay Area to a potential spot on the U.S. Olympic team.
Please follow this link.
By Rick Eymer
By Rick Eymer
By Rick Eymer
