Menlo School grad John Wilson came up with 13 saves in goal to help the Johns Hopkins men’s water polo team defeat MIT, 11-9, on Sunday to win its 16th CWPA Division III Championship in New London, Ct.
Wilson, a sophomore, faced 22 shots and was named to the all-tournament first team as Johns Hopkins improved to 16-8 all-time in the division title match, including 10-6 when playing MIT for the title. Junior Bret Pinsker from Palo Alto High had a goal for the winners. Also on the Johns Hopkins roster are Menlo grads Spencer Witte, Andreas Katsis and Dimitri Herr.
Johns Hopkins (16-8) next will travel to Lewisburg, Pa., for the 2015 CWPA Southern Championship November 6-8.
Women’s basketball
Pacific senior Hailie Eackles from Pinewood School was named to the West Coast Conference preseason team Monday at the WCC Tip-Off in a vote of the conference’s head coaches.
Eackles, a second team All-WCC selection last year, is the Tigers’ top returning scorer. As a junior, the Sunnyvale native averaged 11.9 points per game and finished fifth in the conference with 2.2 three-pointers made per game. She shot .365 from behind the three-point arc, 10th in the WCC last year. Eackles has scored in double-figures in 30 of 45 career starts, including 24 of 33 games against WCC opponents.
Pacific was picked sixth in the preseason poll. The Tigers were 21-10 overall and 13-5 in WCC play last season, earning the program’s fourth consecutive post-season appearance and second-straight WNIT postseason as a West Coast Conference member.
Football
Sacred Heart Prep grad Ben Burr-Kirven, a freshman linebacker at the University of Washington, had a total of seven tackles, tying him for third on the team, during last Saturday’s 31-14 loss to host Stanford in Pac-12 action.
Men’s soccer
Former Menlo School goalie Timmy Costa earned his ninth shutout of the season to help Whitworth hold off Puget Sound, 1-0, on Sunday in Tacoma, Wash. Whitworth improved to 9-1-1 in the Northwest Conference (13-1-1 overall) after suffering its first loss a day earlier — 2-0 to Pacific Lutheran. Whitworth remains atop the division, one game ahead of Pacific Lutheran.
Women’s volleyball
With senior setter Kimmy Whitson from Palo Alto High getting 34 assists, two kills, two blocks and three aces, Pacific opened the second half of the West Coast Conference season with a 25-20, 25-22, 25-21 win over host University of San Francisco on Saturday.
The win netted Pacific its second straight season sweep of the Dons as the Tigers improved to 5-5 in conference play and 14-7 overall.
In Berkeley, Palo Alto High grad Melanie Wade had four kills and finished with seven points as Washington handed host Cal a 25-15, 30-28, 25-16 defeat on Saturday. The Huskies finished the first half of the Pac-12 season at 8-2 (18-2 overall) and in second place behind unbeaten USC.
In Philadelphia, Pa., Sacred Heart Prep grad Sarah Daschbach had a match-best 25 digs to help Princeton post a 25-21, 22-25, 25-11, 25-14 victory over host Penn on Saturday. The Tigers improved to 4-4 in the Ivy League, just two games behind co-leaders Harvard and Dartmouth — both of which will visit Princeton this week.
In Providence, R.I., Sacred Heart Prep grad Payton Smith had 14 kills and hit .480 while Menlo School grad Elisa Merten had a career-high 25 digs to help Brown University (4-4, 10-10) defeat Yale for the first time since 2005 — 26-24, 19-25, 25-14, 25-16. Smith is a junior middle blocker and Merten is a freshman. Melissa Cairo, a sophomore from Menlo, added 10 digs.
Sacred Heart Prep Jesse Ebner produced 10 kills (.474 hitting) with six blocks and six digs for Yale (5-3, 10-7), the defending Ivy League champ.
Cairo leads the Ivy League in digs with 325 while Princeton’s Daschbach is No. 5.
In New London, Conn., Palo Alto High grad Caroline Martin of Connecticut College had nine kills and nine digs to help the Camels (15-6) defeat Johnson & Wales, 25-15, 25-18, 25-15 on Saturday. Connecticut College is ranked No. 7 in New England.
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports
By Palo Alto Online Sports
Seems as though Menlo has a pipeline to east coast colleges. is this legal? Any sort of regulation for this? Or doe they just get to send water polo players there whenever they want?
Seriously? If the Menlo kids are qualified, they can go to whichever school they want. Many play in the Ivy League so they can continue their athletic careers. The caliber of the MPSF (Stanford, Cal, UCLA, USC, Pacific) is much tougher. Most athletes from this area who want to continue playing choose D-II and D-III schools over Division I.
PoloItIs: It’s hard to imagine how this could possibly be illegal. Without knowing too much about that program the fact is, college coaches will recruit the players they know will perform best for their teams. A college coach can’t afford to do favors for coaches/high schools at the cost of their own programs. Menlo also sends water polo players to DI schools like Cal and Stanford so I don’t think it’s just an east coast pipeline thing.
What both Menlo and Sacred Heart Prep do for all of their students is provide a superior college counseling and search guidance program that gets students to places where they will thrive academically and (in this case) athletically.
Both schools have many graduates playing sports at smaller institutions on both coasts and in between.