Sports briefs: San Marin making late push for section playoffs

With two games left in the girls water polo regular season, San Marin High is holding out hope for a North Coast Section bid. A 4-0 run Saturday at the Mustang Rodeo tournament at Novato High gave San Marin’s postseason credentials an extra boost.

San Marin (12-8, 1-6 MCAL) beat San Domenico, 14-5, in the Mustangs’ second game of the day. Sophomore Dani Jaime Coehlo powered the Mustangs offense with six goals and freshman Cate Eilerman added four goals. Senior Julia Owens and junior Reese Cordero each scored twice for the Mustangs.

Beatrix Ballesteros Gonzales led the Panthers (5-7, 2-5) with three goals, while Emma Grasso and Lauren Kurtzman each scored a goal.

“It’s fun to host a tournament that features teams that are developing,” San Marin head coach Patty Dougherty said.

San Marin beat Lick-Wilmerding, 12-1, and Petaluma, 16-1, in two early games, and capped the day with a 14-4 victory over Albany on Saturday. Coelho had 15 goals across the four games, while Eilerman had 10 goals and 10 assists. Owens chipped in with eight assists.

The Mustangs are scheduled to host San Rafael and San Domenico on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively, to wrap up MCAL play.

San Domenico beat Lick-Wilmerding, 10-1, and shut out Albany, 7-0, in Saturday’s earlier games. Kurtzman finished the day with eight goals total. Lucy Frederickson scored three goals and Ballesteros Gonzales scored twice against Lick-Wilmerding.

“It’s exciting to see the program develop,” said San Domenico head coach Giorgio Cico, who noted the program, now in its third season, has doubled its win total from the past two seasons combined. “The girls started from a place of learning water polo from scratch. Now, we’re making teams beat us.”

Former Marin Catholic High standout Spencer Petras continued his prolific passing for Utah State, throwing for another 360 yards on Saturday as the Aggies lost a 50-45 heartbreaker against New Mexico State. Utah State (1-6) led 45-36 with under 8 minutes to play before New Mexico State scored 14 unanswered points to finish the game.

Petras, who was already coming off two of the best yardage games of his career with 372 against Boise State on Sept. 21 then a career-high 461 against UNLV last week, went 32-of-47 passing with two touchdowns and one interception.

Tam picked up a victory in its final game at the North-South Challenge, defeating San Ramon Valley 15-12 on Saturday. Bern Kent scored five goals. Reed Hanna and Andrew Sternfels scored three goals apiece. Hanna had five steals and Kent had four for the Red-tailed Hawks (11-10), who went 1-3 at the two-day tournament.

Tam fell 15-14 to Greenwich (Conn.) in overtime in its first game on Saturday. Hanna scored three times in that game while Kent, Declan Murphy, Jasper Feldman, and Pasch Campbell-Visnich all scored twice.

Jose Ruiz (San Rafael High) scored a goal and goalie Adrian DeLeon (Redwood) made seven saves as College of Marin topped Mendocino 3-1 on Friday. Dante Amador scored the other two goals for the Mariners (4-10-2, 4-1-1 Bay Valley).

Marin Catholic battled Lick-Wilmerding to a 0-0 tie on Saturday, securing a spot in next week’s MCAL playoffs in the process. MC (10-1-4) is six points clear of Lick-Wilmerding (8-1-6) with one game remaining.

Tam (13-2-1) has secured the top seed in the playoffs. Redwood sits in second heading into Monday’s games but could drop to third with a loss against Lick-Wilmerding. University is third but could still finish anywhere from second through fourth. MC could move up to third with a win and a University loss.

Emmeline Sandgren dished out 18 assists as Tam closed out the regular season with a 25-6, 25-18, 25-13 win against Novato on Friday. Natalia Clifford added seven kills and Reese Murphy had four kills, five blocks, and three aces. Tam (21-9, 5-3 MCAL) enters the league playoffs as the No. 4 seed and hosts No. 5 Terra Linda (20-11, 4-4) at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

The Branson School swept singles play to secure a 5-2 victory over Tam on Friday. The Bulls’ Paloma Vano-Rice rallied for a 3-6, 6-2, 10-2 win over Scarlett Wilson at No. 4 singles, and Branson’s Mirabel Arlander, Katie Warren and Audrey Gilmore also won.