Prep roundup: Las Lomas girls water polo punches ticket to title game with quintuple-overtime victory

Prep roundup: Mitty to play Branson, and St. Francis to play host to Foothill in NorCal Open Division semifinals

Girls water polo

Las Lomas 13, San Ramon Valley 12

Las Lomas advanced to the NCS Division I final after defeating San Ramon Valley in five overtimes. The Knights lost both regular-season meetings with the Wolves, but won when it mattered most to advance to their third consecutive title game.

Sierra Brown scored three goals, the third of which was the game-winning goal in sudden death. Lily Palma was also outstanding for Las Lomas, scoring seven goals, drawing five exclusions, assisting once, and stealing once.

Teagan Claus had one goal and four assists, and Rachel Eger and Sydney Walburg each had one goal. Las Lomas goalkeeper Geneva Reese stopped 13 shots.

In the loss, San Ramon Valley had several standouts. Morgan Hoffman scored two backhand cross-cage goals out of set, and Daphne Mundelius scored six. Olivia Anderson, another freshman, had three assists, and Natalie Buck scored two goals.

SRV’s Brooke Temkin scored a goal, and seniors Rachel Kral and Katie Libertore each had an assist. Shelby Killingsworth had 15 saves and an assist as a goalkeeper.

Las Lomas will face No. 1 seed Archie Williams for the NCS title on Saturday at Acalanes. In the other NCS final, Archie Williams defeated Northgate 8-2. Encinal fell to Tamalpais 9-2 in the semifinal round of Division II.

Acalanes 10, Carondelet 9

On Wednesday night, something must have been in the (water polo) water, because Las Lomas wasn’t the only team to play a five-overtime game. Acalanes defeated Carondelet in five overtime periods in the Division I third-place game.

Acalanes’ Wendy Heffelfinger scored the game-winner, and goalie Adelyn Horciza saved multiple shots in a game that went an hour without either team scoring. Elsa Horciza, her sister, scored twice for Carondelet.

Boys water polo

Sacred Heart Prep 14, Los Gatos 10

Sacred Heart Prep advanced to the CCS Open Division finals against Bellarmine thanks to four goals from Oliver Marcin.

In a balanced attack, Clay Carrington, Tyler Hogan, Andrew Spencer, and Luke Kirincich each scored two goals. Nelson Harris and Jake Reinke each had a goal. Hogan led the team with three assists, while Kirincich and Carrington each had two.

Los Gatos had five players score two goals each: Liam Amburegy, Ryan Madsen, Mathijs Dirven, Connor Sullivan, and Richard Runge.As SHP’s primary goalkeeper, Murdock Baker-Matsuoka made 10 saves. Los Gatos led 3-2 in the second quarter before going on a 10-point run to take control of the game.

Leland 9, Stevenson 8

After defeating Stevenson, Leland advanced to the Division II championship game against Soquel on Saturday. Trevor Cosgrove, a senior, led the victors with three goals.

Louis DeScioli scored twice, and Luke Raimondi, Logan Grimes, and Jake Primmer each scored once. Max Buran, a junior from Leland, had one goal and four assists to lead the team.

Notes on boys water polo

In the Open Division semifinal, Bellarmine defeated St. Francis 11-8. The Division I championship game will feature Palo Alto and Archbishop Mitty. Palo Alto defeated Los Altos 9-8, and Menlo-Atherton was defeated by Archbishop Mitty 16-1.

Girls volleyball

Foothill 3. St. Mary’s Stockton 1

Foothill improved to 37-1 with a 25-17, 23-25, 25-23, 25-21 victory over St. Mary’s-Stockton. Katie Salonga led the team with 53 assists and 11 digs.

Many of those assists assisted Paige Bennett, who had 24 kills and 11 digs. Foothill advanced to the second round of the NorCal Open playoffs after Kait Vogel had 23 digs and seven aces and Kaycie Burdick had 14 service points and 13 kills.

The Falcons will face the reigning NorCal Open champions St. Francis, who defeated St. Ignatius 3-0 on Wednesday night. On Saturday, Foothill will face the Lancers.

Volleyball notes

Archbishop Mitty defeated Redwood 3-0 to advance to the semifinals of the Open Division’s NorCal bracket against Branson.

In the only upset of the first round, Branson defeated No. 4 Sacred Heart Prep 3-0. All of the higher-level SoCal teams won their first-round games as well.

Other notes

McKenna Woliczko, a sophomore girls basketball and softball player at Mitty, was named the 2022-23 San Jose Sports Hall of Fame girls high school athlete of the year on Wednesday night. Danny Scudero, a fellow Mitty alum who is now a freshman on the Sacramento State football team, was named the boys HS athlete of the year. Woliczko was named BANG Santa Clara’s girls basketball player of the year, and Scudero was named BANG Santa Clara’s football player of the year.