Girls Varsity Basketball - The Bears won the PAL South Championship outright. It is the Bears first Championship since 2009 and its first outright Championship of the North/South-only era since 2001. After winning the Sonoma Dragon Classic Tournament at the start of the season, the team began tagging team photos with #StartWithAChampionshipEndWithAChampionship. This week the Bears sought to fulfill that goal in the PAL Tournament. 

As PAL South Champions, the Bears received the #1 seed in the PAL Tournament. On Tuesday at M-A they played the #4 seed in the PAL North, South San Francisco. In the first quarter the Bears 6 day layoff showed as a determined South San Francisco team went up 5-3 in the first 3 minutes. M-A's Greer Hoyem had 7 of her 12 points on the night in the first quarter as the Bears rallied back to tie the game with a minute remaining. Freshman Carly McLanahan hit a 3-pointer to give the Bears a 3 point lead at the end of the first quarter. In the second quarter Sarah Howell hit 3 of her 4 3-pointers on the night as M-A began to extend its lead. M-A's defense stiffened, led by Megan Sparrow who had 12 rebounds. After a defensive struggle in the third quarter, the Bears broke the game open in the fourth quarter with 7 points from Hoyem and Ofa Sili to put the game away, 44-28.

With the win the Bears advanced to the semi-finals. On Friday night at Mills the team faced the #2 seed in the North, Half Moon Bay. The Bears started fast. McLanahan hit 3 first half 3-pointers and senior captain Naomi Baer drove, scored, and drew fouls to help the Bears jump out to a 28-14 half-time lead. The Bears defense dominated the first 2 quarters led by Sparrow and Sili who had 5 straight defensive takeaways. The second half was a different matter. The Cougars started hitting their shots and the Bears' 17 point lead fell to 4 points with 3 minutes left in the game. However the Bears defense stiffened and post Sili hit 5 free throws to put the game away, 54-45. 

With the win the Bears advanced to the finals aka "the County Championship Game,"  Saturday Night at Mills where they faced Westmoor, the undefeated champions of the PAL North. As last year's PAL tournament champion and PAL North champions 3 years running, the Rams were heavy favorites, until the game started. In the first quarter, the Bears went on a 15-2 run in M-A style, with 6 Bears scoring. With the M-A defense in lock down mode the Bears jumped out to a 19-8 lead. In the second quarter the Rams closed the lead to 27-21. Howell hit her second 3-pointer of the half but the Rams answered back. In the third quarter the Rams briefly took the lead 29-28, but it did not last long. The Bears struggled to score in the paint early in the game but they succeeded in getting the Rams in foul trouble. Late in the third that work paid off as the Ram's post players headed to the bench and the Bears went on a 15-0 run. Sili had a pair of 3-pointers in the third on her way to 14 points in the game. N. Baer scored 7 of her 10 points during the run and the game was out of reach. The Bears celebrated their first PAL Tournament Championship since 2008 with a decisive win 54-42. The Bears earned the #2 seed in CCS Division 1. After first and second round byes, the Bears and will play on Saturday, February 28 at Piedmont Hills High School, time to be determined.

Boys Freshman Basketball - The Bears delivered another successful season, earning the league championship under veteran coaches Harry Bell and Art Weil. The coaches crafted a challenging preseason schedule against the likes of Serra and Bellermine. These early losses against talented squads resulted in a 4-7 record and gave the boys a taste for how much harder they needed to work to become a competitive team. And work they did. Practices were spirited and each game, you could tell that no one wanted to come off the court. The early losses turned to close wins and eventually to commanding control of most games. The winning streak was ignited mid-season by Julian Verbo's three-pointer with M-A down by 2 against Carlmont and less than a minute to play. Each week you could see the progress; turnovers shrunk, the big men avoided early foul trouble, and other teams were having a hard time scoring against M-A's pressure man to man. The best test was the late season game at Burlingame. Both teams were 9-1 in league play and the winner would move to the top of the standings. Burlingame scored on the opening tip off and took a big lead in the first few minutes and they eventually scored 20 points in the first quarter. M-A didn't rattle and fought back slowly over the next three quarters. After a season of difficulty at the foul line, the boys shot a near perfect 11 for 12, none bigger than the four in a row Aaron Letvin put in the last couple of minutes to ice the game. The season ending victory against Woodside finished the 12-1 run and brought the league championship to M-A.

Girls Varsity Soccer - It was a fitting senior day for the team as the Bears defeated Hillsdale 4-0 last Tuesday. M-A's seven seniors - Jacqueline Foody, Taryn Harpell, Annie Harrier, Carolyn Hunt-Gonzalez, Salina Manibog, Ellie Purpura, and Amanda Wiseman - were introduced prior to the match and all were granted a spot in the starting lineup. In the 33rd minute, outside defender Jordan Olesen made a run down the right wing and floated a ball in to forward Josephine Cotto in the middle. Cotto deftly chipped the ball over the rushing keeper's head and into the net to put M-A up 1-0 at the half. In the second half, midfielder Sarah McLeod captured her own deflection off a defender and broke through the back line to place a beautiful ball into the left corner of the net for M-A's second goal in the 46th minute. With about 15 minutes remaining in the match, Cotto chipped the ball over the top of the defense to find speedy striker Katie Guenin, who broke free and finished with a great left-footed shot into the back of the net for a 3-0 M-A lead. Finally, it was senior Harrier who scored the fourth and final goal of the match in the 73rd minute when she collected a ball from a throw-in and fired a shot from the left side of the box to put an exclamation point on the match and give M-A a 4-0 victory.