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Two of the best girls’ volleyball teams in Northern California faced off on Thursday night and the result was typical of such a matchup — a close battle all the way.
While Homestead seemingly had an advantage as the home team and coming off a big tournament championship last weekend, it was Menlo School pulling out the nonleague triumph, 25-19, 20-25, 26-24, 25-13.
The Knights (5-1) got 17 kills each from seniors Abby Whelan and Lizzie Hale to hold off the Mustangs (10-1), who won the High Sierra Tournament in Reno last weekend. Menlo, meanwhile, was finishing second in the 32-team Milpitas Spikefest tourney.
Homestead came into the match ranked No. 74 in the nation by prepvolleyball.com, but Menlo’s tandem of Whelan and Hale proved too much. Whelan added 11 digs and hit .419 for the match while Hale hit .583 and added three aces. Senior setter Molly Bagshaw contributed 48 assists and seven digs while leading the Knights’ offense to a .364 team hitting effort.
Menlo sophomore Allie Frappier hit .371 with 14 kills and eight digs while senior Alexis Schwartz added 11 digs. Menlo will play in the St. Francis tournament on Friday and Saturday before visiting nationally No. 2-ranked Mitty next Tuesday.
At Palo Alto High, junior Marisa Florant produced 10 kills and senior Ally Whitson added eight as the Vikings rolled to a 25-9, 25-9, 25-14 nonleague victory over visiting Mt. Pleasant on Thursday night.
The Vikings improved to 7-2 while tuning up for a big nonleague match against visiting Woodside on Tuesday night (6:45 p.m.). Paly coach Dave Winn also received some solid play from freshman outside hitter Maddie Kuppe and freshman middle blocker Melanie Wade. Both showed a lot of maturity for first-year players, a rarity on varsity teams. Then again, Wade stands 6-foot-3 and will be tough to keep off the court with her dominating size.
In Atherton, senior setter Marissa Alvarez dished out 31 assists and played well on defense with nine digs to lead host Sacred Heart Prep to a 25-14, 26-24, 25-15 nonleague victory over visiting Menlo-Atherton.
Sacred Heart’s Kelly Halamek was the recipient of many of Alvarez’s assists and produced 13 kills. Deanna Kneis added 16 digs and Margot Roux contributed five aces as the Gators improved to 7-2. Menlo-Atherton fell to 1-1.
In Palo Alto, Erin McLaughlin had 10 digs and 10 kills to pace Castilleja to a 25-17, 25-16, 25-18 nonleague victory over visiting Del Mar. Lindsey Wang added eight kills and nine digs for the Gators (3-4) while Morgan Jones dished 27 assists and Pauline Ryan added five aces.
Girls tennis
Menlo-Atherton remained unbeaten in the PAL Bay Division with a 6-1 drubbing of Aragon on Thursday.
The Bears (3-0, 3-1) were led by the division’s top player, junior Marietta Tuionetoa, plus top sophomores Julia Sommer and Jordyn Fantuzzi at No. 1 doubles.
Menlo-Atherton shook off some early jitters before dominating the Dons the rest of the way.
Sacred Heart Prep opened its 2008 season with a 5-2 triumph over visiting Valley Christian (San Jose) on Thursday. Edita Robinson, Kristen Rodgers and Alex Marshall swept the top three singles positions for the Gators.
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