Sports Shorts Sports Shorts (December 05, 2003)

WATER SPORTS . . . The United States women's national water polo team opened the sixth annual Holiday Cup on Wednesday with a 6-5 victory over reigning Olympic champion Australia at the USA Water Polo National Aquatic Center in Los Alamitos. Stanford grads Brenda Villa and Ellen Estes each scored a goal for the Americans. The Holiday Cup runs through Sunday and also includes Italy, Russia, Canada and the Netherlands. Stanford grad Margie Dingeldein injured her left thumb during Sunday's 9-6 win over the Netherlands in an exhibition series at UC Santa Barbara. Stanford grad Jackie Frank recorded 15 saves against the Dutch team, and shut them out in the fourth period. Estes had three goals and Villa scored once in the contest.

OF LOCAL NOTE . . . A pair of Menlo School grads have helped Emory University reach the Final Four of the NCAA Division III women's volleyball tournament. K.C. Conley recorded 12 digs in a 30-21, 27-30, 30-21, 30-23 victory over No. 2 Williams in the quarterfinals. Conley has recorded double figures in digs 14 times this season as Emory reached its first ever Final Four, which gets underway today with a match against No. 7 New York University (39-4) at LaVerne College at 4:30 p.m. Conley has a career high 366 digs this season. Courtney Rose, who had 16 kills and 16 digs while hitting at a .441 clip against Williams, was named honorable mention for the all-region team. The Eagles (32-12) are ranked sixth nationally.

SHE'S STILL FIT . . . Former Stanford gymnast Sarah Harding took seventh place with a 70.22 score at the Fitness Woman European Hosted World Championships in Poland in October. Harding qualified for the event after claiming the Ms. Fitness USA title and taking third place in the Ms. Fitness World competition in September. Harding won the beauty/evening gown round with a score of 22.29, while fellow American Karen Elliot placed second (21.90). Harding placed sixth with a score of 29.12 in the routines round and 10th in the physique category (18.81). While at Stanford, Harding earned All-America honors in 1999 after placing ninth in the floor exercise at the NCAA Championships. She recorded a perfect 10.00 on floor on March 26, 1999, to rank first in the all-time Cardinal record books. Harding currently resides in Montreal where she is training as an acrobat/dancer with the Cirque du Soleil acrobatic show. The Ms. Fitness USA and Ms. Fitness World competitions will air nationally on Fox Sports Net on Jan. 1, 2004.

LOCAL SOCCER NEWS . . . The MVLA CyberRays, a CYSA Girls' U-12 Class 3 (born after 7/31/91) is looking for several fast, skilled and dedicated players to help us move up to the next level. Our players are from Saratoga, Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Menlo Park, Palo Alto, Los Altos, and Los Altos Hills. The team is trained by Simon Weiss (former player for University of North Carolina.) We are dedicated to the technical training of each player and seeing the ladies play a possession style of game. Please contact Alberto Martin at 996-0505 or by email at almartin@stanford.edu . . . The Stanford Wildfire, a Girls' U-12 Class 3 team moving to Class 1, is holding tryouts for the upcoming spring season. Contact Barbara Zimmer at 424-0736 or kev-barb@pacbell.net.

OF LOCAL NOTE . . . Sacred Heart Prep is looking for assistant swim coaches for the spring, to work with the boys' and girls' teams. Interested coaches should contact SHP athletic director Mike Ciardella at 473-4031.

CORRECTION . . . The photo of Palo Alto High football players Adam Dexter and Nathan Taber (78) in Wednesday's paper misidentified one of the players. Instead of Dexter on the left, it was Shane Parsons.

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