Fall sports wrapping up with NCS, State competitions now underway
Carondelet High teams were second in North Coast Section playoffs in both volleyball and golf enabling the Cougars to move on to the Northern California Championships, highlighting post-season play to date for local fall sports teams and athletes.
Girls Golf
Carondelet coach Rick Eisenhour’s team plays in the ultra-competitive East Bay Athletic League golf and that helped them to a runner-up finish to league rival Dougherty Valley at NCS and then the Cougars were fourth at the Northern California Tournament with DV again in first place.
Carondelet was also second at the NCS championship last year after winning Section in 2017 and 2015. The Cougars finished third at NorCal and sixth at state last fall.
Madelyn Gamble was second at NCS and third at NorCal. She was just one shot back at NorCal and qualified as an individual for the State meet this week. Her teammate Madison Wu also continued on to State as an individual where they will play next Tuesday at Poppy Hills Golf Course in Peach Beach.
Northgate’s Gia Feliciano was her with Bronco teammate at NCS and her 74 was good enough to qualify as an individual for NorCals. She finished 20th there.
Clayton Valley Charter’s Kiana Fong made it to NCS as an individual.
Water Polo
NCS water polo concludes this week and the NorCal championships are Nov. 19-23.
Carondelet is the No. 1 seed in Division 2. After an opening bye the Cougars defeated Newark Memorial 13-3 to reach the semi-finals this Wednesday against Northgate. The fourth-seeded Broncos edged Terra Linda 6-5 in the second round. Concord High was also in D-2 as the 11th seed and the Minutemen fell to Encinal 9-8 in the opening round.
Clayton Valley Charter defeated Berkeley 7-6 and Redwood 5-1 in D-1 as the fifth seed. The Eagles matched up with No. 1 ranked Sir Francis Drake in the semi-finals Wednesday.
NCS tournaments for boys and girls begin Nov. 6 and end Nov. 16. DAL teams Campolindo boys and Acalanes girls won the first-ever NCS Open championships.
Girls Volleyball
NCS concluded last Saturday with No. 2 Carondelet falling in three sets to Division 2 top seed Marin Catholic, losing the final set 25-22.
Earlier, the Concord school had rolled through three consecutive straight set wins over Arroyo, Montgomery and Alameda.
Northgate began the playoffs with a five-set win over American before falling to Marin Catholic. Clayton Valley Charter lost in the first round to Maria Carrillo.
The CIF Northern California championships are underway this week with the Division 1 Cougars hosting Clovis North on Tuesday in an 8-9 seed matchup. The finals are Nov. 19.
Cross Country
Diablo and East Bay athletic league championships were last Saturday. Local school’s runners and teams didn’t rack up as many laurels as they’ve done in recent years.
De La Salle took fourth at the EBAL meet. Juniors Patrick Curulla and Kieran Brown took fourth and fifth for the Spartans.
In the girls EBAL meet a young Carondelet team was ninth with a freshman and two sophomores their top finishers.
Logan Harlow of Northgate was top local finisher in fifth in the DAL boys championship race. Concord’s Diego Huerta (11th) and Nathan Butterfield of CVCHS (14th) led their respective teams. Northgate boys were third, Clayton Valley Charter fifth and Concord eighth in the overall DAL standings.
Seniors Lark Chang-Yeh of Northgate and CVCHS’s Angely Alas paced their teams at DAL. Ygnacio’s top runner was Quinn Whiteley while freshman Alana Sevier was Concord’s first finisher.
The NCS Meet of Champions is Nov. 23 at Hayward High with the CIF State Meet Nov. 30 at Woodward Park in Fresno.
Girls Tennis
The NCS team championships are this week with the singles and doubles tournament next Monday and Tuesday. The NorCal team tournament is Nov. 19-23.
Clayton Valley Charter was seeded 14th in Division 1 and meets No. 3 San Ramon Valley this Thursday.