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By Keith Peters
Palo Alto Online Sports

It was the first day that high school seniors could sign national letters of intent with the college of their choice. For Castilleja's Sammy Albanese, it was a year in the making.

"I knew a year ago to the day when I gave my verbal," Albanese said about which college she had selected. On Wednesday, she made it official by signing her letter to play softball next year at Northwestern University during a ceremony at Castilleja in the morning, which was attended by her classmates, her parents Craig and Laura, and younger sister Melanie.

Albanese said she fell in love with the school, the softball coaches, her future teammates and the changing of the seasons in Evanston, Ill.

"We won't have four seasons out here," Albanese said, alluding to the lack of snow and the other lack of seasonal differences on the West Coast. "And I loved the coaches and the camaraderie with the players who showed up on my visit.

"Northwestern has always been my No. 1 choice," Sammy said, "so, this has been like a dream coming true."

The school, she said, is a perfect combination of academics and softball. Albanese reportedly plans on attending Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management to study business, finance or economics.

"Everything about my unofficial visit was outstanding -- the school, the coaches, the players, the campus, and Evanston itself," she said.

Albanese is currently a senior at Castilleja, where she is one of the top pitchers in the Central Coast Section. She is a three-time MVP of the West Bay Athletic League and has been named to the Cal High Sports All-State team and various All-American teams. Students Sports Softball lists her as one of the nation's top 100 recruits in the class of 2010.

Perhaps the highlight of her junior season was the 3-2 victory over Sequoia in 14-innings where she struck out 37 batters while pitching all 14 frames. That earned her recognition in Sports Illustrated's "Faces in the Crowd."

At Northwestern, Albanese will add to an already strong program. In recent years, Northwestern has become a national softball power. In 2008, the Wildcats won both the Big 10 regular season and conference tournament titles on their way to an 18-2 league record and overall 40-16 mark. They were eliminated in the Super Regional by eventual national champion Arizona State. Northwestern reached the WCWS semifinals in both 2006 and 2007. In 2009, Northwestern went 31-15 and made a seventh straight appearance in the NCAA tournament.

Albanese will play for two players with Stanford connections, assistant coach Tori Nyberg and volunteer assistant Lauren Lappin. Nyberg graduated from Carlmont and pitched for the Cardinal while Lappin starred for Stanford and was a member of the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team.

During the offseason, Albanese plays for the Vallejo-based Sorcerer 18-under ASA team, which captured the 2009 ASA Gold National Championships in Oklahoma City, Okla., earlier this year.

In other local signing news, Menlo-Atherton senior Rebecca Dorst has decided to accept a scholarship offer from defending NCAA champion UCLA and play water polo for the Bruins beginning with the 2010-11 season.

Dorst is one of the top players in the state and certainly in the CCS, where she is the reigning Division I Player of the Year. During the past three seasons, the Bears are 71-13. As a sophomore, she helped the Bears win their first-ever CCS title. She got the Bears back into last season's title game, where M-A dropped a 7-6 overtime loss to St. Francis and finished the year 25-4. This season the Bears are 25-1 and primed for a run at a second crown.

At UCLA, Dorst will join a program that has won national titles the past five years. She'll also be reunited with former Menlo School players Camy Sullivan and Megan Burmeister plus former Sacred Heart Prep standout KK Clark.

Stanford men's basketball
The five recruits who verbally committed to Stanford are set to sign letters of intent this week.

The list includes: Josh Huestis (Great Falls, MT/C.M. Russell H.S.), Dwight Powell (Toronto, Ont./IMG Academy), Anthony Brown (Huntington Beach, Calif./Ocean View H.S.), John Gage (Vashon, Wash./Vashon Island H.S.) and Aaron Bright (Issaquah, Wash./Issaquah H.S.).

Women's basketball
Chiney Ogwumike is expected to announce her choice between Stanford, Connecticut and Notre Dame on Thursday morning at Cy-Fair High.

Stanford announced the signing of guards Sara James (El Dorado Hills, Calif./Oak Ridge H.S.) and Toni Kokenis (Hinsdale, Ill./Hinsdale Central H.S.).

"We are very excited to welcome Sara and Toni to the Stanford family," Stanford coach Tara VanDerveer said. "They are very competitive, very talented athletes and will each do very well here at Stanford. They will contribute immediately to this team and as exceptional individuals both on the court and in the classroom, I look forward to Sara and Toni being very successful here at Stanford."

Women's water polo
Stanford coach John Tanner announced the signing of four student-athletes to National Letters of Intent Wednesday.

The quartet of signees that will become members of the Stanford Class of 2014 consist of Kaley Dodson (Seal Beach, Calif./Los Alamitos HS), Kaitlyn Lo (San Anselmo, Calif./Sir Francis Drake HS), Lexie Ross (Laguna Beach, CA/Laguna Beach HS) and Kelsey Suggs (Ladera Ranch, CA/Tesoro HS).

"These four give us a diverse, tough to guard group of athletes who are ready to play at the highest level of college water polo," Tanner said. "I am extremely excited about the skills, talent and drive they can bring to our program. Like all our current players, they are also fantastic students with a wide range of interests."