San Marin High Sports Update Oct. 22-27

It was a big week for San Marin High as varsity football had a nailbiting overtime win, tennis won a dramatic MCAL quarterfinal match, and volleyball pulled out a remarkable five-set win to reach the MCAL Playoffs! Check out how they got there and all the upcoming playoff matches this week.

Varsity Football

The Mustangs won a nailbiter down at Tamalpais on Saturday to close out the regular season at 4-6.  In a back and forth affair, the Mustangs prevailed on a OT touchdown pass from Manny Wilkins to Jason Shannon.  Shannon was spectacular on the day catching 2 TDs including a huge 27 yarder on 3rd and 16 with just over 5 minutes left in the game.  Wilkins ran in 2 TDs to go along with his 2 through the air.  On the ground, Kyle Chernoff carried the ball 36 times for 118 yards.  After scoring on the first possession of OT, the Mustang defense held Tam on 4 straight plays to lock up the game.  The defense rattled Tam’s quarterback all day in the form of Chris Gorman and Danny Blackwell.  With the win, the Mustangs will now wait to see where they will be playing next.  The NCS draw comes out Sunday, November 4.  The Mustangs have a shot at a home game potentially with current projections ranging from anywhere between an 8 seed down to an 11.    

Junior Varsity Football

The Mustangs JV won their season finale 30-13 on the road at Tam.  Jeff Walchli put the Mustangs on the board midway through the first quarter with a 43 yard field goal, his second 40+ yard field goal of the season.  For the next quarter and a half, both teams engaged in a defensive battle and the game remained at 3-0.  With just over a minute left in the half, the Mustangs utilized their two minute offense to go 80 yards in only 3 plays to make it a 10-0 game at halftime.  The drive started with Dante Restivo catching a 30 yard pass from Walchli, and ended with Aaron Lewko catching a screen pass and making a highlight reel run 50 yards for the score.   Tam scored to start the third quarter to make it a 10-7 game, but the Mustang's offense came alive, scoring on its next three possessions.  Aaron Lewko scored on a 20 yard sweep, Dante Restivo made multiple defenders miss on a 24 yard scoring run, and Jeff Walchli connected with Tommy Doherty for a touchdown.  Erol Nelson and Colin Lane each had solid runs as well.  The defense was once again led Connor McGarty who had 4 tackles for loss.  Jack Hazelton shined in the defensive backfield, intercepting two Tam passes.  Ian Curiel, Joe Joyce, Richard Mahaffey, and Jonas Dohrmann provided the pressure on Tam's quarterback during the 4th quarter.  The JV Mustangs finished 6-4 on the year.

Volleyball

Varsity-  The Mustangs girls scored a huge come from behind win over Justin Siena on Friday night in a MCAL Play-in Game for the final spot.  With the win the Mustangs clinched their 6th spot and a date with the Novato Hornets on Tuesday night.  The drama started before the girls even arrived at the gym, as an accident on 37 caused the girls to arrive just 10 minutes before gametime.   With limited warmup time and an overriding panic setting in, the girls dropped the first game 17-25.  The girls settled down but Justin Siena kept catching key breaks and after losing 20-25, the Mustangs were facing elimination from the playoffs.   As desperation set in to salvage the season, Game 3 saw momentum turn.  Brittney Herrmann and Casey Cunningham both had strong serving runs in Game 3 as SM  won 25-17.  Game 4 saw the Mustangs jump out to and early lead that held up till 22-17, when Justin made a strong push to close the gap. At 22-20 Katherine Gonzalez subbed for Herrmann in the backrow and inspired the defense.   The girls held on to win Game 4 25-23. Tied at 2, the final game saw a resurgent Justin Siena jump out to big lead.  Trailing 10-13 two points away from losing, Jenna Sudlow came up with a huge sideout kill.  After an exchange of points between both teams, Hermann was faced with match point against her while serving trailing 12-14.  Justin Siena called timeout to set their defense, as SM coach Jesse Denham told his girls "push to tie it up, if we tie this game the match is ours".   That is exactly what Hermann did serving four consecutive jump serves to finish out the match 16-14.

The girls now move onto the MCAL Quarterfinals on Tuesday night at 7 PM over at crosstown rival Novato.

Tennis

They say the third time is a charm and in this case it was true.  The SM Girls Tennis team dropped the two previous matches to Justin Siena, the last a 5-4 defeat.   The Mustangs drew Justin in the MCAL Quarterfinals and turned the tables on the Braves coming away with a 5-4 victory.   However it would take 2 days to do so, as mother-nature interrupted the proceedings.  The match started off with Hannah Gelleri losing her match to one of JS toughest opponents.  Maria DeSalvo was extremely close in dropping her first set 7-6.  Avery Abel was down a set and 3-5 in the second.  The doubles teams were ahead each closing out the first set and Julia Fager was up a set and 4-1 in the second. Then the rains came and postponed the match. Driving back to Napa the next day, Avery lost her battle but Julia Fager was terrific with solid aggressive play and closed out her win. So the score was 2-1 JS, when both doubles teams closed out their victories. Nidhi Mamidi and Julia Raven won 4 straight games with great team play and smart shotmaking. Rachel Cantor and Angela Ding breezed through their second set in record time. Maria dropped her second set and the score was tied 3-3 with 3 matches to play. Our #1 doubles team of Amanda Cardy and Meghan Harder had no trouble and won 6-1, 6-1 to put the Mustangs in front 4-3. Rachel Teel, who has had a great season, was faced with playing one of the top players in the league. She lost her match, which at 4-4 made it all come down to sophomore Christine Coll.

Ten days earlier, Coll played the same opponent and lost her match 6-3, 6-3. This time she reduced her unforced errors, and played as steady as she had all year. She was up a set and 4-1 before her nerves took a toll. She dropped two very quick games, but with all her teammates behind her rooting her on, Christine stepped up big. She regained her focus and closed out the match 6-3, giving San Marin the win and achieving their preseason goals.

Water Polo – Boys

Varsity- The boys lost in the MCAL Quarterfinals to Redwood 12-9 on Tuesday.  Ryan Campbell led the Mustangs with 4 goals.  The Mustangs who finished 11-8 did qualify the NCS Playoffs and were seeded 8.  They will play Piedmont, 4:30 Wednesday at Contra Costa College. 

Cross Country

In the final league meet at home against Terra Linda, the Mustangs came up just short losing the girls match Terra Linda 28 San Marin 29 and the boys Terra Linda 18 San Marin 43.  However, personal records set by 5 of 13 girls.  The MCALs postseason meet takes place next week on Thursday, November 8 at Indian Valley College.  Girls run at 3:15 and the guys at 4:00.

Top finishers from TL Meet

Girls 

Jan Grandi                           20:46

Monika Neuweiler                  22:59

Marissa Caldwell                    23:20

Tess O'Brien                         23:24

Brittany Panela                      23:55

Boys

Nico Panela                           17:27

Paul Shin                              18:35

Garrett Sutherland                18:36

Owen Cao                             19:21

Mark Wang                            19:29

SCHEDULE FOR THIS WEEK

Tuesday, October 30

7:00 PM

MCAL QUARTERFINAL

VOLLEYBALL PLAYOFF

@ Novato

Wednesday, October 31

4:30 PM

NCS BOYS WATERPOLO

SM vs. Piedmont

@ Contra Costa College