Sports briefs: Trio of boys polo teams advance to finals
The boys water polo teams from Redwood High, Tam High, and Marin Academy all won their respective semifinals on Wednesday to advance to Saturday’s championship games. The Giants and Red-tailed Hawks will see each other in the Division I final at 2:30 p.m. at Marin Academy.
Top-seeded Redwood (26-3) secured a 12-9 home victory against No. 4 San Ramon Valley (16-11). Ossie Joplin and Storm Jackson scored four goals apiece. Sawyer Goldberg and Maddox McLellan scored two goals each.
No. 3 Tam (17-11) went on the road to Moraga and sprung the 6-5 upset over No. 2 College Park (14-12) in the other semifinal.
Andrew Sternfels scored the game-winning goal for Tam inside the final 3 minutes against College Park. Bern Kent and Pasch Campbell-Visnich combined to secure a game-clinching steal in the final 30 seconds.
Tam trailed 4-3 in the fourth period but got goals from Reed Hanna and Kent to pull ahead 5-4. Declan Murphy and Jasper Feldman also scored for Tam. Goalie Ethan Wallace made 10 saves and Campbell-Visnich added three assists.
Redwood and Tam played once during the regular season, a game won by the Giants 15-5 on Sept. 25. Joplin scored five goals in that meeting and Jackson added four. Bern Kent led Tam with two goals. Both teams eventually fell to Archie Williams in the MCAL playoffs — Tam in the semifinals and Redwood in the title game.
Marin Academy also went on the road and pulled off an upset in the D-II playoffs, cruising to an 11-6 win over Foothill (14-12) at San Ramon Valley High. Mathieu Giauque scored two of his six goals in the first period as MA (16-9) jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead. Justin Tachiki, Michael Yoder, and Noah Hirson all scored twice for MA.
The Wildcats advance to Saturday’s title game against No. 1 Cardinal Newman (22-7), which survived a scare from No. 5 Washington and won 15-14. The Wildcats host the Cardinals at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
College basketball
Carly Amborn officially committed to play for the Stanford University women’s basketball, signing during a special ceremony held Wednesday at the San Domenico.
Amborn led the Panthers to a Bay Counties League West championship and a North Coast Section Division V title last season — her first with San Domenico after transferring from Archie Williams.
Amborn averaged 30.5 points per game during the section playoffs to lead San Domenico to the title. Amborn is currently enjoying a strong tennis season which saw her claim the BCL West singles championship just last week.
Girls tennis
Tiburon resident Emerson Howard recently led St. Ignatius to an undefeated season in West Catholic Athletic League play before winning the league’s singles championship and helping the Wildcats win the postseason team title.
Howard won all four of her matches, including the final against Valley Christian’s Lillian Yee last Thursday. Howard, a sophomore, was also named the WCAL girls tennis player of the year.
Howard, whose primary sport is lacrosse, is heading to the East Coast for some college recruiting tournaments later this week and will miss the Central Coast Section individual tennis tournament next week.
- Marin Academy, seeded fourth in D-II, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-1 road win against No. 13 Albany on Tuesday. The Wildcats move on to face No. 5 Piedmont at 2 p.m. Thursday at Dominican University.
Girls volleyball
Madeleine Wagner had a team-high 14 kills and added three aces in Redwood’s three-set win against No. 11 Vacaville in the first round of the North Coast Section Division I playoffs on Tuesday.
Milan Hendrickson and Neeva Gaine had nine kills apiece — hitting .304 and .571, respectively — for the No. 6 Giants (25-5). Redwood, which also got 16 digs and seven aces from Ella Moran, advances to Thursday’s quarterfinal against host and No. 3 seed Clovis (27-10).
- Marin Catholic’s season came to an end on Wednesday as the No. 4-seeded Wildcats were swept 3-0 by No. 5 seed Archbishop Mitty in the NorCal Open Division playoffs. Stats were not available at press time.
- Natalia Clifford and Natalie Stanford had 12 kills apiece but Tam’s season came to an end following a 17-25, 25-20, 21-25, 20-25 road loss to No. 8 Palo Alto (31-5) on Tuesday. Clifford added 10 digs, six aces, and three blocks for the No. 9 Red-tailed Hawks (26-11). Stanford added nine digs, two blocks, and an ace. Emmeline Sandgren had 33 assists and Jade Curtin-Savala had 17 digs and three aces. Reese Murphy added five kills and three blocks.