Palo Alto girls solid Palo Alto girls solid (October 06, 2004)while others are toppled

Vikings take third in tough James Logan Top 21 event; Menlo boys beat SHP to surface with St. Francis title

by Keith Peters

Unpredictable probably best describes the local high school girls' water polo season, especially following last weekend's James Logan Top 21 Tournament.

Defending Central Coast Section champion St. Francis lost twice. Menlo School, considered a possible candidate to replace the Lancers atop the section this season, lost three times. And Palo Alto, which suffered losses to St. Francis and Menlo earlier this season, finished ahead of both while taking a solid third.

"The girls played great," Palo Alto coach Steve Covec said. "They played a tough match with a controversial ending against Monte Vista (Danville), last year's North Coast Section champion." Paly, however, bounced back to beat a good Rio Americano team, 9-7, for third-place honors. The Vikings (14-4) opened with an 11-9 win over Campolindo, a team that edged Menlo in overtime, 7-6. Paly then toppled Clovis West, 10-6, and lost to Monte Vista, 7-6, a team that crunched Menlo in the opening round, 8-4.

Paly senior Remy Champion led the way with 16 goals and seven assists, in addition to drawing nine ejections. The Vikings, however, spread the scoring well with Phoebe Champion, Roxanne Pinto, Brittany Webster, Tanya Wilcox and Angela Bena all scoring.

The Vikings will host Gunn (6-4) on Wednesday in an SCVAL De Anza Division match at 3 p.m. The Titans are coming off a 9-8 nonleague loss to Castilleja last week.

Menlo (11-4), which hasn't gone 1-3 in a tournament in quite some time, got off on the wrong foot against Monte Vista in the opening round. The Knights rallied for an 18-2 romp over Logan before losing back-to-back overtime matches to Campolindo (7-6) and Mitty (8-7).

Camy Sullivan and Megan Burmeister, both sophomores, led the Knights with eight goals each. Fellow sophomore Kim Krueger added six goals.
Boys

Menlo (15-2) and Sacred Heart Prep (14-4) remain the most consistent local squads following their championship showdown in the annual St. Francis Invitational.

"It was a weird weekend," said Menlo coach Jack Bowen, whose team topped the Gators, 8-4, for the Knights' second tourney title this season.

Bowen pointed to Sacred Heart's big 11-6 win over Los Altos as one surprise in the two-day tourney, along with Gunn's 11-6 toppling of Soquel and St. Francis' 13-6 romp over Los Altos, one of only two teams to be Menlo this season.

Bowen also was surprised by his team's margin of victory over SHP in the championship match. The Gators took the Knights to double overtime before losing by one just two weeks ago in the third-place match of the Scott Roche Invitational.

Sophomore Ben Hohl scored 13 goals and goalie Jimmie Sandman had 12 saves in a 10-5 semifinal win over St. Francis and 10 against the Gators in the final.

Sacred Heart Prep finished 3-1 in the tourney and was led by seniors Dylan Mobley and Doug Wigley, both with 12 goals.

Gunn (11-5) also finished with a 3-1 mark and grabbed fifth place, losing only to Menlo in a tight 9-8 decision. Brandon Johnson led the Titans with 17 goals while senior Arjan Ligtenberg added 13 goals. Head coach Mark Hernandez was very pleased with his team's effort, especially against CCS Division II power Soquel and Burlingame, a team that beat Gunn a few weeks ago.

Menlo-Atherton also finished 3-1, losing only to Sacred Heart Prep (11-7) in the opening round. The Bears went on to beat Palo Alto (15-4), topple Mitty (11-5) and edge Cupertino (8-5) for ninth place. Seniors Michael Borcich (10 goals) and Alex Wiesner (nine) paced the Bears (4-2).

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