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St. Francis faced the toughest week of its West Catholic Athletic League girls volleyball schedule and came up with two important victories.
The latest victory, a spirited 23-25, 27-25, 18-25, 25-22, 15-12 decision at Mitty on Thursday, is cause for celebration. Those are valuable points when it comes time to decide seeding for the Central Coast Section tournament.
More importantly, Lancers coach Mike Rubin believed his team was more than capable of consistently playing “amazing volleyball.” This week proved him right.
St. Francis (15-10, 5-3) went on the road for both of its matches this week, beating Valley Christian in a three-set sweep on Tuesday before knocking off Mitty (29-7, 7-2) for the second time this year.
In combination with St. Ignatius beating Valley Christian on Thursday, St. Francis is alone in third place, a game behind Mitty and the Wildcats in the loss column with two matches left.
St. Francis plays a pair of matches against Presentation next week, traveling to San Jose for a make-up match Monday and hosting Presentation on Wednesday.
Mitty and St. Ignatius, who share first place, have one regular-season match remaining. The Monarchs have to go to Valley Christian and SI goes to city rival Sacred Heart Cathedral on Tuesday.
As of now, there’s no way for St. Francis to be seeded lower than third in the Open Division. The Lancers strength of schedule plays in their favor.
The West Bay Athletic League title will be decided on the final day, when Menlo (25-5, 9-0) visits Sacred Heart Prep (23-3, 8-1) for a 6:30 p.m. match Tuesday.
Menlo beat visiting Notre Dame Belmont 25-20, 25-11, 25-18 on Thursday, its 15th straight win.
Senior outside hitter Simone Adam had a team-high 11 kills, sophomore Cleo Hardin recorded nine kills and senior outside Sharon Nejad added eight kills on .533 hitting. Menlo seniors Hanna Hoffman had 21 assists and seven kills and Zoe Gregory added 20 assists, six digs and four aces.
SHP won its ninth straight, beating Notre Dame San Jose 25-18, 25-17, 25-12, as senior Millie Muir recorded 18 kills and 21 assists. Isabelle Marco added 26 assists and served four aces. Mia Radeff and Tatum Baker combined for another 14 kills.
IN the WBAL Skyline Division, Priory beat Eastside Prep 25-9, 25-18, 25-16, in Portola Valley.
The SCVAL De Anza Division had to shuffle some matches around because of an officiating shortage. As a result, Gunn’s 25-23, 23-25, 25-12, 28-26 loss at Los Gatos was the only match played.
Palo Alto’s match at Homestead and Los Altos match at Los Gatos were rescheduled for Friday.
Los Altos also played Wednesday, beating Monta Vista 25-12, 23-25, 15-25, 25-19, 15-9, as senior Emma Symon recorded 20 kills on .571 hitting. Leigh Doyas and Kaitlyn Lee each had 12 kills and combined for 37 digs. Shannon McCabe led the Eagles (22-12, 8-3) with 28 digs.
Los Altos has won 12 of its past 16 matches since a four-match losing streak.
Menlo-Atherton beat San Mateo 24-26, 25-14, 25-18, 21-25, 15-10 to improve to 8-5 in PAL Division action.
Sequoia defeated Woodside 25-20, 19-25, 25-15, 25-18 in another PAL match.
Water Polo
It was Senior Day for both the Gunn boys and girls teams and also for Castilleja. All three teams won their contests on Thursday.
Sacred Heart Prep and Menlo School each lost non-league games to SoCal schools.
Gunn, which finished the regular season unbeaten in league play, beat Mountain View 17-8 as five seniors combined for 16 goals, led by Rowan Broughan with six goals, Cole Vale and Jishnu Steffen each added four goals. Nico Julia and Isaac Zelkha also scored.
Siham Arsalane scored six goals and Kenza Ashworth added five in Gunn’s 13-3 win over Mountain View. Sawyer McKenna and Mia Knezevic also scored.
Castilleja beat Palo Alto 14-7 as Sydney Lowell scored five goals and Gabby Lewis added four. Annika Burks had three goals while Talula Seale scored once and recorded five assists.
For Palo Alto, Julia Ragno led the way with four goals while Sami Lee added a pair and Yasmine Friedrichowitz also scored.
Jack Vort scored four goals and Jake Tsotadze added a pair in Sacred Heart Prep’s 12-8 loss to Newport Harbor, a team the Gators (20-3) beat earlier in the season.
Tommy Kiesling scored seven goals and Greg Hilderbrand added four in Menlo’s 15-12 setback to Orange Lutheran.
By Rick Eymer
By Rick Eymer
By Rick Eymer
