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Beating a rival is always good. Denying them a shot at a championship is even better. The Menlo School girls' volleyball team accomplished both on Tuesday night with a five-game victory over visiting Sacred Heart Prep.

The Knights settled the West Bay Athletic League (Foothill Division) race with a 27-25, 23-25, 19-25, 25-18, 15-8 triumph over the Gators, thus handing the title to unbeaten Mercy-Burlingame.

Sacred Heart Prep fell to 7-2 in league (20-9 overall) with one match remaining. Menlo improved to 4-5 in league (15-17) and kept its slim postseason hopes alive with an emotional victory on Senior Night.

Last year, Menlo defeated Sacred Heart Prep a few hundred yards up Valparaiso Avenue on the Gators' Senior Night in a dramatic five-set win on Election Day. Exactly a year later, the Gators tried to return the favor after Menlo recognized graduating seniors Elizabeth Augustus, Tess Brown, Courtney Laub, Sarah Rosales and Mila Sheeline.

The Gators opened up a 16-12 lead in Game 1, but Menlo chipped away, and buoyed by a nice crowd, Menlo pulled out a close victory. Sacred Heart led Game 2 the entire way, even though Menlo made a charge from 19-24 to get within one before Sarah Daschbach had a kill to give Prep the gamet.

The Gators pulled away gradually in Game 3, and it looked like the visitors might prevail when they rallied from a slow start to get within 12-11 in Game 4. But Menlo weathered the storm and pulled away to send it to a deciding game.

Things were tied at 6-all in the Game 5 when Rosales recorded her third kill of the game and went back to serve. And serve. And serve. Sheeline had three kills during the run, and the Knights led 13-6 before Rosales's serving run finally ended. Menlo ended the match on a thunderous kill from junior Allie Frappier, and the blue and gold celebrations began.

Menlo recorded 12 kills, one ace and one block, needing only one Gator error to get their 15 points, in a well-played Game 5.

Frappier, who just recently returned to action after reportedly suffering a concussion, had career-highs of 27 kills and 24 digs, and Sheeline also recorded all-time bests with 13 kills and 14 digs for Menlo. Augustus had 19 digs, and Rosales hit .308 with nine kills and two aces, scoring four points in the fifth by herself. Junior Jazmin Moledina had six kills and four blocks, and classmate Anelise Hohl had two aces and seven digs. Freshman setter Alexandra Ko finished with eight digs and two aces.

SHP seniors Kira Whitehouse and Christine Renschler each had 15 kills to pace the Gators, who host Mercy-Burlingame on Thursday at 5:45 p.m. with the league title already decided.

In another WBAL Foothill Division match, Castilleja (4-5, 14-12) dropped a 27-29, 25-20, 25-18, 25-10 decision to host Notre Dame-San Jose. The Gators will close out their regular season by hosting Menlo on Wednesday at 5:45 p.m.

In the PAL Bay Division, host Menlo-Atherton wrapped up its first regular season under first-year coach Jennifer Wilson with a sweep of Woodside, 25-15, 25-21, 25-21. The Bears finished in second place with an 11-3 record (19-7 overall). Hannah Branning had 14 digs, Sophia Cornew contributed 18 assists and seven digs while Katelyn Doherty had eight digs, seven kills and three aces for the Bears.

In the SCVAL De Anza Division, Gunn remained winless in league play following a 25-18, 25-19, 25-12 loss to host Los Gatos on Tuesday. Senior Teresa Skelly had seven kills for the Titans 0-11, 16-21) while Julie Maggioncalda had six. Shelly Kousnetz produced 20 assists.

Palo Alto (11-0, 32-3), which clinched its fourth straight league title last week, will go after a perfect mark in De Anza Division play on Thursday (6:45 p.m.) when the Vikings host Saratoga on Senior Night.

The Central Coast Section playoffs get under way next week.

Girls' golf
A fine season came to an end for the Sacred Heart Prep and Castilleja teams along with two Pinewood players at the CCS Championships on Tuesday at Rancho Canada East Golf Course in Carmel Valley.

On a day that saw Presentation's Mariko Tumangan shoot a CCS record 62 to win individual honors, Sacred Heart Prep finished seventh (340) and Castilleja eighth (343) in the team competition and fail to advance to the NorCal Championships.

Audrey Proulx of Pinewood and Brenna Nelsen of Castilleja both shot 75, but they too missed out on advancing to the NorCal individual tourney next week. Also missing out individually was Rachael Henry of Sacred Heart Prep (76) and Kristen Lee of Menlo (79).

Castilleja went in as the top local team, but only Nelsen was able to break 80. Freshman Taylor Wilkerson shot 82 and Sarah Debs had an 86, but the Gators needed another score close to that to have any chance of advancing. That didn't happen as Beverly Jiang shot 99), Stephanie Merenbach had 103 and Eliza Thompson finished with a 105.

Sacred Heart Prep, which finished second to Castilleja in the WBAL this season, finished strong with Kenndy Shields (85), Christine Walecka (89) and Shelby Soltau (90) adding to the scoring.

Pinewood's Kim Beers competed individually and shot 86 as did Menlo's Gabby Girard (90).