Girls Varsity Basketball - By making it to the CCS Championship game, the Bears were one of 32 teams selected for the State Championship Tournament. M-A drew the 11th seed in the Northern Division and traveled to 6th seed, James Logan, on Wednesday night. James Logan (Union City) was the top seed in the NCS Tournament, which does not have an Open Division. With 3,900 students, James Logan is the largest public high school in Northern California.

In the first quarter, the Bears struggled with the Colts quickness and fell behind 13-4 with 5 seconds left. Ofa Sili took an inbound pass, and sunk a shot at the buzzer from the halfway line to end the quarter, 13-7. In the second quarter, James Logan began to pull away. Annalisa Crowe and Sally Carlson helped stabilize the defense and the post game came to life. Greer Hoyem scored 9 in the second quarter. Hoyem had 22 points on the night and scored 20 or more in 4 straight games. Nonetheless, the Bears were down by 14 at the half.

The Bears rallied in the third quarter, holding the Colts to 8 while Sili and Hoyem combined for 14 points in the paint. With 5 seconds remaining, Carly McLanahan pull down one of her 9 rebounds and outleted to Ilana Baer. Baer sprinted down the court and sunk a running three from way outside the arc. The Bears second ESPN-worthy buzzer beating three-pointer closed the gap to 4 points at the end of the third quarter.

In the fourth quarter, the Bears trailed by 2 points with Sarah Howell and McLanahan hitting threes, and Sili and Hoyem scoring in the paint. With 12 seconds remaining and down by 3, the Bears got off a three-pointer that missed. They quickly fouled and the Colts, who were previously perfect from the free throw line, missed the first of a 1 and 1. The Bears rebounded with 3 seconds remaining and got off another three at the buzzer, which just missed, ending their amazing season, 51-48.

Highlights of the season include winning the PAL South, winning the PAL Tournament, and reaching the CCS D1 Championship Game. The team bids farewell to its seniors, Naomi Baer, Erin Goode, Sarah Howell, Maddy Kim, and Carolyn Watson who showed outstanding leadership and character. The girls would like to thank their incredible coaching staff (Markisha Coleman, Haley Grossman, and Mike Owen), the 6th Woman club, the Boosters, and the M-A community. With one of the youngest rosters in CCS, the Bears look forward to next season.

 Track and Field - On Saturday, approximately 20 athletes competed at the K-Bell Invitational. There were some great performances from our athletes:

• Kathyrn Mohr vaulted 11'6 to take home 2nd place in her first meet this season.
• Annie Harrier finished the 200 in 26.66, the 10th fastest time in M-A history
• The girls 4x400 team (Harrier, Miranda Simes, Cat Depuy, and Annalisa Crowe) ended the meet on a high note winning an exciting relay against some of the top teams in CCS with the 13th fastest time in M-A history.
• Nico Plume improved his personal record in the 1600, running 4:45.67 moving himself to 17th in M-A history.
• Terrance Matthews-Murphy threw the discus 125'1 feet, finishing 9th overall.
• Steven McColloch ran a personal record in the 300 Hurdles, clocking a time of 43.97

 Swimming and Diving - In their first PAL league meet, 3 of the 4 swim teams beat Sequoia. M-A swimmers made a splash with 5 new CCS times:  Faith Dunn (on her 16th birthday) in the 200 IM and 100 breast, Kate Denend in the 100 freestyle, Zach Goland in the 200 freestyle, and the varsity girls 200 freestyle relay (won by Denend, Murff, Claire Haldeman, Dunn). 

The varsity girls racked up 111 points to 46 for Sequoia, with strong first place wins by Dunn (200 IM and 100 breast), Maddie Worden (50 free and 100 back), Sophie Murff (500 free), and three relay first place wins for 200 medley relay (Worden, Kaufman, Rarick, Denend), the 200 free relay (Denend, Murff, Haldeman, Dunn), and the 400 free relay (Lane, Denend, Murff, Huhn). 

The JV girls lost to Sequoia, 84-102. M-A's winning 200 medley relay team consisted of Julia Sherman, Brynn Williams, Nadia Paquin, and Emily Baker. Individual races were won by Baker (200 Free), Sarah Reichow (100 Free), Maddie Maxwell (50 Breast), Marissa Shepard (100 Breast), Paquin (100 Back), and Cameron Bozdog (50 Free).

The varsity boys beat Sequoia 106.5 to 63.5 with wins in all three the relays:  200 medley relay (Tedesco, Kuhnen, Williams, Goland), 200 free relay (Goland, Lipps, Hakanson, Williams) and 400 free relay (Gran, Caryotakis, Hakanson, Lipps).  Individual races were won by Goland (200 free and 100 breast) and Gordon Williams (500 Free).  

The boys JV team also won a lopsided match 153-18. The winning relay teams were:  200 medley (Rosicki, Resendiz, Giordano and Huhn), 200 free relay (Andy Maxwell, Adrien Carrou, Demetri Sweezy, and Christian Huhn), and the 100 free relay (Resendiz, Smith, Weston, and Visconti). Individual races were won by Michael Giordano (100 Breast and 100 IM), Henry Marks (100 Back), Elton Rosicki (200 Free), Luis Resendiz (50 Free), Selim Karahan (50 Breast), Adrien Carrou (50 Back), Demetri Sweezy (50 Fly), and Hugo McMillan (100 Free). The aqua bears move on to their next PAL meet at Mills on Thursday, March 26 at 3:30 p.m.

Boys JV Volleyball - The JV team had a great first 2 games of their first-ever season. They played hard and let some established teams know M-A volleyball is coming on strong! Come out and cheer the team at their first home game this Tuesday, March 17 at 4:30 p.m. against Wilcox in Ayers Gym.

 Boys Varsity Volleyball - Boy's volleyball, a brand new M-A sport, is launched and already showing great promise! They lost their first two games to Westminster and Cupertino, but showed progressive improvement, great teamwork, and fun spirit. There were great moves on the court by all in this first week. A few standouts were Edward Faleta and Ryan Cole with powerful kills; Laki Fonua and Jack Posthauer with key blocks; Bryan Kang with digs and passes; and Schuyler Knapp with skilled setting. Lots more to come from volleyball! 

 Varsity Softball - The Bears went 1-2 this week. On Tuesday, the team traveled to Alma Heights (Pacifica) and won in a 20-1 blowout. The Bears combined 16 hits with 5 walks to plate 20 runs. Sarah Tiemann was the offensive star, going 5 for 5 with 4 triples, 2 in the first inning. The rest of the lineup was productive with Emily Katz hitting 2 triples, Erin White and Brianna Martinez with 2 singles each, and Yesenia Garcia, Alice Coleman and Yasmine Pope each with a double. Molly Katz and Maddi Zamora each hit singles. E. Katz pitched the first 2 innings, striking out 4; and Victoria Sanie pitched the final 3 innings, striking out 3 and allowing only 2 hits. Defensively, the Bears were sharp. They made no errors, and the catch of the day was made by Taylor Conrad in center field to rob the Alma Heights hitter of at least a double.

On Wednesday, the Bears played Notre Dame San Jose in a close game that ended in a 4-2 loss. In spite of tight defense by the Bears, the speedy Notre Dame base runners took every advantage, and were able to get 4 runs on only 4 hits. E. Katz pitched all 7 innings, striking out 8 batters and allowing only 2 walks. The Bears couldn't get their offense going, leaving 12 runners stranded during the game and collecting only 5 hits. E. Katz had a double and two singles, batting in the Bears' only 2 runs, and Tiemann and Martinez each had singles.
 

On Friday, the Bears traveled to Kings Academy in San Jose, and were happy to welcome co-captain Erin Goode back to the team after a long basketball season. In a tough game all around, the Bears lost 12-0 in 5 innings. Next week, the Bears are at home for all 3 games, with league play starting on Thursday, March 19 against South San Francisco.

 Varsity Baseball - AJ Lemons pitched masterfully against the vaunted St. Francis lineup Tuesday afternoon, allowing no earned runs in his first 5 innings on the mound. Lemons held the Lancers hitless through 5, working a somewhat erratic strike zone with a combination of fastballs, change-ups and a wicked breaking ball. The Lancers scored their first run unearned in the 3rd off a walk, a steal, and an infield error. The Lancers' fortunes improved in the 6th with a gap double to left and an error that put the runner on third. Lemons retired the next batter, then gave up a walk and, with a count of 0-2, was victimized by a swing at an out-of-the-strike-zone pitch that resulted in a shot down the left line, plating 2 Lancer runners. The final Lancer run came in on an ineffective 1st and 3rd play. Nick Olson took the mound in relief and retired the last 2 batters. For the record, Lemons had 6 Ks, 2 walks, and scattered 3 hits in 79 pitches. The Bears struggled at the plate against several Lancer pitchers, picking up only 3 singles, 2 by Daniel Kollar-Gasiewski (K-G) and one by Max Gardiner. The Bears' best chance to score came with a double steal attempt in the 5th. Unfortunately, a late jump by the lead runner left him dead at the plate.

Matt McGarry threw a great game on the road on Thursday against Riordan. McGarry went 6 1/3 innings with eight strikeouts and left in the 7th inning up 4-1. Unfortunately, the home team rallied for four runs in the bottom of the seventh to give the Bears a tough 5-4 loss. The defense played very well, and was highlighted by a great relay play in the 4th inning that saw Cam Malloy run down a deep double and then throw a perfect strike to short stop Nick Prainito, who in turn made a great one hop throw to K-G at the plate to cut down a Riordan runner, and prevent a possible rally from happening. Offensively, Malloy had 2 singles and 2 RBIs, Bret Rodrigues had a single and a double and scored a run, and Evan Easton and Tyler Koo also scored runs for the Bears.

M-A lost 9-3 to Hillsdale at home on Friday despite a total of 6 hits. Kodiak Conrad started the game and made the first out catching a hot line drive hit right back to him on the mound. Conrad went 3 1/3 innings on 74 pitches with 2 strikeouts, 3 walks and 5 earned runs. Hillsdale came out slugging and M-A had a slow start on defense. Olson relieved in the fourth and went 2 1/3 innings with 44 pitches. Olson had 1 earned run, 1 strikeout and 3 walks. Lemons came in to close and held Hillsdale hitless over 1 1/3 innings. Lemons used 22 pitches, allowed no earned runs, walked none and struck out 2. McGarry racked up 2 RBIs on a homer over the left field fence in the first inning bringing in K-G for the Bears. Prainito went 2-3 at the plate with a huge triple to the fence in right field in the sixth inning. Prainito was plated on a sacrifice fly to centerfield by Lemons. There were 4 singles scattered over 7 innings, 1 each by Prainito, Lemons, K-G and Rodrigues. McGarry left the game early after making 2 amazing catches at first base. Easton made a great play on a hard grounder to second in the 2nd inning and Prainito caught a hard line drive straight to short to start the 5th inning. Gardiner had an amazing diving catch in left field in the 6th inning to save another run from scoring. The Bears are off to a slow start with an overall record of 3-6 and 0-3 in League. The next game is at home against Sacred Heart Prep on Wednesday, March 18 at 4 p.m.

 Boys Tennis - M-A has moved to 3-0 in league play with 2 easy wins over Half Moon Bay and Carlmont, 7-0 and 6-1, respectively. The Bears have tremendous depth in doubles this year and used 2 entirely different doubles lineups in the 2 matches with the same dominating result. They gave up only 7 games in the combined 12 sets. 

In the previous week, the Bears were very busy with 6 matches. Monday, the Bears blanked Serra (7-0) before also blanking Hillsdale (7-0) in the first league match on Tuesday. In the annual California Tennis Classic in Fresno, the Bears were entered in the top division and did well.  On Friday, M-A opened with a 6-1 win over Tamalpais. In the afternoon, they faced Bellarmine, who avenged last year's loss to the Bears with a 4-3 win. Saturday, Palisades (Southern California) beat the Bears 5-2, but M-A closed the trip with a 4-3 win over Santa Barbara. Reed Fratt, Casey Morris, Axel Brenner, Jeffrey Jorgensen, Tyler Ellingson, Jack Jensen, Danny LaPorte, Alex Iyer, Zach Novak, Noah Milman, Camillo Saueressig, Oscar Volpe, Nishant Relan, and Eric Laderman represented M-A in the 120 team competition. All the Bears had an individual victory in Fresno, with Brenner going 3-0 in singles, and Novak and Milman going 3-0 in doubles. The high level of competition will serve them well for post-season play.

Girls JV Lacrosse - The team had its first four games in one week, and now has a 3-1 record. The Bears lost their first game against Gunn (4-5), but bounced back to defeat Saratoga 18-0. Katelyn Wiseman started strong, scoring the first goal 30 seconds into the game. She continued to score the next two goals and finished the game with 7 total goals. Madison Nelson contributed 3, Lindsey Martin and Grace Chitouras each contributed 2. Claire Connell, Elizabeth McColloch and Dorothy Aldridge added one goal each. Next, the Bears beat Palo Alto (11-3) despite playing one player down with no substitutes. Again, Wiseman led the Bears with 6 goals, Nelson and Chitouras had 2 each, and Martin added one. Chitouras led the Bears in ground balls and Goalie Samantha Gomez had 5 saves. 

The Bears won their third game in a row, 19-1, against Redwood. After a tough loss, last season to Redwood, the Bears came out strong, scoring the first 5 goals. Still with one player down and no substitutes, the Bears played a strong offensive game. Goals went to Wiseman (6), Nelson (5), Martin (3), Chitouras (2), Connell (2), McColloch (1). Gomez had 3 saves and a huge save the last 5 seconds to hold Redwood to one goal. Briger led the team in forced turnovers on defense. Come support the team on Tuesday, March 17 as they face Harker at 5:30 p.m. at home.

 Girls Varsity Lacrosse - The Bears split a pair of non-league home games last week. On Tuesday the team faced Redwood (Larkspur). Down 10-7 at the half the Bears came back with Amanda Wiseman winning ground balls off the draw and scoring. Wiseman led all players with 8 goals and an assist. Down 15-12 with 8 minutes remaining, Grace Tully and Izzy Regonini scored to bring the Bears within a point. With 4 minutes remaining Emma Easton squeezed a shot into the corner of the net tying the game 15 all. After a Redwood goal, goalie Allie Bayne had a key save. Annie Payne transitioned the ball and went hard to goal but the Redwood goalie made a great save to preserve the game, 16-15.

On Wednesday, the team faced Notre Dame (San Jose). After 5 minutes, the Bears were up 5-0 and never looked back, ultimately winning 19-7. M-A was led by Wiseman who had 6 goals. Easton and Regonini had 4 each. Lauren McGinnis had 3 assists and a goal. The Bears got great defense from Hannah Wilson, Morgan Corona and Gianna Prainito who combined for 10 defensive stops. Also scoring for the Bears were Payne and Corona.

On Friday, the team traded practice for community service, enjoying an afternoon of teaching lacrosse to the Boys and Girls Club at Garfield Elementary. Next week the Bears play Harker at home on Tuesday, March 17 at 4 p.m. On Friday, March 20 they host Christian Brothers (Sacramento) at 6:30 p.m.