Sacred Heart girls’ tennis beats Menlo for first time

As long as Sacred Heart Prep has put a girls tennis team on the court, there has been one constant: year in and out, the Gators have lost to rival Menlo School.

That, however, was no real surprise. The Knights, after all, were a perennial power in the Central Coast Section with their seven section titles and always seemed to be playing in the NorCal tournament, as well.

Each new season, however, has brought Sacred Heart Prep new hope of ending that string of futility. It was only a matter of time, perhaps, that the inevitable would happen.

And it finally did on Wednesday in the 2007 season opener for both teams.

In a match for the history book, the Sacred Heart Prep girls ended years of Menlo dominance with a 4-3 nonleague victory on the Knights’ courts. Andie Bradford’s 6-3, 6-2 win over Mimi Huggins provider the clinching point.

“It’s a great, historical thing for the girls,” said Sacred Heart Prep coach Losaline Mafileo. “Menlo has a history of great teams.”

The Knights went 23-7 a season ago under veteran coach Bill Shine, losing to Monta Vista in both the CCS and NorCal title matches. Menlo won CCS in 2005 and captured six straight titles from 1997 to 2002.

Sacred Heart Prep, meanwhile, went 18-7 in 2006. The Gators’ season ended with a loss to Monta Vista in the CCS semifinals. Sacred Heart also dropped a 5-2 decision to Menlo to open the season at 1-2.

The closest the Gators have come to beating Menlo was in 2005, when the Knights pulled out a 4-3 triumph.

Just another reason why Wednesday’s victory was so special.

“It’s a great way to start the season off,” Mafileo said. “Hopefully, we can keep the momentum going.”

The history-making moment was lost on Bradford initially. After securing the final point, she calmly walked to the net and shook hands with Huggins. It was only then, after seeing teammates Maggie Brezinski and Ronnie Thompson running onto the court, that the victory finally registered on Bradford’s face and the congratulatory hugging began.

Mafileo had informed her team of what was at stake in her pre-match talk, but did her best to downplay the situation.

“The schools are rivals, but in tennis we try to keep the match fun and exciting,” said Mafileo, who did her best to keep the pressure off her players.

“The seniors knew (about the streak),” Mafileo said. “They knew they had never beaten Menlo. I didn’t have to tell them that.”

“Los would never put pressure on us,” said SHP senior Haley Hemm, the team’s No. 1 singles player.

Hemm did her part in securing the victory by defeating Menlo junior Emily Shine, 6-3, 6-0. Shine is the coach’s niece.

Menlo evened things when senior Alicia Cha topped Brezinski at No. 2 singles, 6-4, 6-0. Sacred Heart Prep went up 3-1 when the doubles tandems of Erin McMahon-Edita Robinson and Kristen Rodgers-Ronnie Thompson won their respective matches.

That left two matches on the court, Bradford against Huggins and Menlo’s Anjali Ranadive against Anne Robson. Menlo needed to win both to keep the streak alive.

It wasn’t going to happen, though, as Bradford held firm in her match and wrapped things up before Ranadive produced a 6-2, 6-4 win at No. 3 singles.

Hemm, for one, realized the possibility existed that she would end her career without ever beating Menlo.

“That was always a possibility,” she said. “Menlo is the tennis school.”

Perhaps that is why the Gators didn’t sit down before the season began and talk about goals for the year. Now, however, they can.

For Menlo, it’s time to regroup and refocus. The Knights opened their PAL Bay Division season on Thursday and will play (along with Sacred Heart Prep) in the annual Peach Tree Classic in Fresno this weekend.

“It was going to happen sooner or later,” Shine said of the loss to Sacred Heart. “But, the year is young.”

The Knights also are young. Despite having six seniors, there’s not a lot of experience.

“We have a lot of seniors, but they just haven’t played a lot,” Shine said. “They need match experience.”

The Knights likely will have more realistic goals this season, focusing on defending PAL Bay Division title instead of winning CCS and NorCal crowns. If Menlo winds up in position to accomplish those things later, Shine will address those tasks then.

Right now, Menlo has another winning streak to keep intact as the Knights haven’t lost a league match since 1993 when they fell to St. Ignatius in the Girls Private School League finale.

Menlo began its streak in 1994 and in 12 years had not lost in league play <0x2014> including the past five seasons in the PAL. Menlo took a league record of 136-0 into Thursday’s PAL opener against Aragon.

Shine, now in his 12th season at Menlo, took a record of 290-32 into Thursday’s match. He coached 15 years at Pinewood, prior to arriving at Menlo. Thus, he went 26 years without ever losing to Sacred Heart Prep.

“I’ll take that any time,” Shine said.

Boys soccer

The Private Schools Athletic League season is shaping up to be very interesting with any number of teams contending for the title.

Defending CCS Division III champion Sacred Heart Prep (0-1, 1-2) opened league play Wednesday with a surprising 4-0 loss at King’s Academy. A day earlier, Pinewood (1-1, 1-2) routed visiting Fremont Christian, 8-1, as Connor Whitlock scored three times and Nick Field added two. TJ Young, Will Critchfield and Michael Cherkassky also scored for the Panthers, who got solid defensive play from Casey Morgan and Devon Legge.

Woodside Priory (1-0, 1-2), which opened its league season by beating Pinewood, dropped a 2-1 decision to visiting Latino College Prep on Wednesday. Servando Barriga tallied Priory’s goal on assist from freshman Guillermo Talancon.

Priory’s setback was interesting from the standpoint that Latino Prep fell to Sacred Heart Prep last week, 3-1. Woodside Priory and Sacred Heart Prep will meet for the first time on Sept. 21 in Portola Valley.

Girls volleyball

Castilleja (4-2) continued its strong early season performance with a 25-23, 25-19, 22-25, 21-25, 15-11 nonleague victory over host St. Ignatius on Wednesday night.

Taylor Docter (10 kills), Adrienne Dreyfus (nine kills) and Audrey Kuan (31 digs) paced the Gators, who are still playing all their matches on the road until their new gym is completed.

Gunn (1-0), meanwhile, opened its season and gave first-year coach Raudel Perez a victory, 28-26, 25-23, 25-18 over Santa Clara. Tiffany Stone had 10 kills and 12 digs to pace the Titans while Lauren Ding (10 digs, five aces) and Michaela Venuti (18 assists) also contributed to the triumph.

Menlo-Atherton (2-4) was toppled by visiting Mountain View, 25-15, 25-6, 26-24 in a nonleague match Tuesday. Diane Seely (five kills) and Alex Warner (four kills) paced the Bears under first-year coach Laurence Dudash.

Boys water polo

The annual John Schmitt Invitational gets under way Friday with Menlo-Atherton, Gunn, Sacred Heart Prep, Menlo and Palo Alto all making their season debuts.

At Lynbrook High, Menlo-Atherton faces Turlock at 1:50 p.m., followed by Gunn and Serra at 2:40 p.m. and Sacred Heart Prep and Lodi at 3:30 p.m. Should Gunn and Sacred Heart Prep win, they’ll face each other in the second round at 6 p.m.

Menlo, the two-time defending CCS Division II champ, opens against Mitty at Monta Vista High at 2:30 p.m., and likely will face the Acalanes-Golden Valley winner at 6 p.m. Palo Alto plays Golden West at Cupertino High at 1:50 p.m.

Third-round play continues Saturday at 7 a.m., with the championship match set for Bellarmine Prep at 5 p.m.

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