Sports briefs: Branson tennis player advances to section semifinals
The Branson School’s Anna Rende won a pair of matches on Monday to advance to the North Coast Section Division II semifinals.
Rende defeated Marin Academy’s Amelia Thomas in a three-set battle — 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 — in the round of 16. Rende followed that up with a 6-0, 6-1 win over North Coast Prep’s Emma Bazemore in the quarterfinals.
Rende faces Head-Royce’s Noelle Chen in the semifinals, to be held Tuesday at McKinleyville and Arcata High. MA’s Eloise Sent advanced to the quarterfinals before falling to Piedmont’s Tanya Kononova.
Tam’s Gabriella Plonowski, Marin’s lone representative in the D-I singles bracket, advanced to the quarterfinals before bowing out to the top seed, Caroline Beard of Montgomery.
Redwood placed a pair of doubles teams in the D-I bracket. Both teams — Gwenn Ricordel/Lindsey Reed and Ella Povio/Annesley Krawitt — won their first match before falling in the quarterfinals.
Boys water polo
Reed Hanna scored four goals and had four steals to pace Tam in the NCS D-I championship game on Saturday. The No. 2 Red-tailed Hawks were within a goal in the final quarter before ultimately falling 10-7 against top seed San Ramon Valley.
Quin Concannon, Cole Stanford and Zach Pollack also scored for the Red-tailed Hawks (19-9). Gabe Hirner had a pair of assists and a pair of steals.
Since winning the D-I title in 2018, Tam has made it to at least the semifinals in every postseason since. This was the program’s first trip back to the title game since beating Redwood 8-6 in the 2018 final.
Men’s basketball
Jaayden Bush scored a team-high 16 points for Dominican University in a 66-56 loss at San Francisco State on Sunday.
The Gators built a 34-23 halftime lead and extended the lead to 20 points before the Penguins made a late rally. Dominican (1-1) cut the led to 60-56 on a lay-up by Tyler Williams with 2 minutes, 30 seconds left in the game. San Francisco State closed the game on a 6-0 run to secure the win.
Marcus McCutchen scored 12 points for Dominican and Garrett Siebels added 11. McCutchen also had a team-high seven rebounds.