The Week in Sports
October 11, 2019
As the calendar turns to October, Cate athletes continue to perform with excellence on the fields, courts, and in the pool. Some teams are beginning to look toward a deep CIF playoff run, while others still have work to do in their regular season schedule.
One team with only two matches left before taking their dominance to the CIF field is girls volleyball. The team has continued to play with relentless effort and grit, leading them to a 13-3 record on the year. Behind the defensive efforts of senior Grace Blankenhorn and sophomore Elise Guerrand-Hermès, the Rams have made it extremely difficult on opposing teams. While on the offensive side, junior Grace Johnson and sophomore Chidera Chukwumerije, along with Guerrand-Hermès, have been a force difficult to contain. They have racked up the kills off of consistent setting from senior Maya Blattberg and junior Riley Borchardt. The girls will look to finish the regular season on a continued winning streak with matches against St. Bonaventure and Grace Brethren remaining.
“This was a good win for us coming off of two straight losses. We were able to get back to executing our offense and came up with some strong defensive plays when we needed to this evening…” Head Coach Ben Soto offered these remarks after the football teams recent win over Malibu High School. The Rams were coming off of a very tough loss to the third-ranked Flintridge Prep Rebels team but were able to bounce back to finish off non-league play. It was a full team effort with the offense being paced through the air by great quarterback play out of sophomore Will Bouma finding some of his favorite targets in fellow classmate Mason Oetgen and junior Will Deardorff. Defensively, seniors Callum Casey, Will Anderson, and Scott Holmes are unrelenting in their disruption of opposing teams’ offensive gameplans. Although the Rams would like to have a couple more wins to their record, they know that league play lies ahead of them, and as Coach Soto tells the players from day one, it is league play that is the payoff window.
For the aquatic Rams, the season thus far has not gone as they had hoped. An extremely young team has battled through injuries and tough competition. The boys continue to be led by senior anchor Peter Bulkley-Armas, who has been key to the offense with his presence in front of opposing goalies. Freshmen Wade Nieman and Cyrus Symington have impressed in their young careers getting their names on the scoresheet in just about every game. Another pleasant surprise on the season has been the performance of freshman goalie Emmett Mack. Having never played water polo before, Emmett has done an admirable job stepping in the net, splitting time with senior Ethan Ha. The team has plenty of chances remaining on the schedule to continue to improve, beginning with a match against Santa Maria on October 16th.
The girls tennis team has been keeping up with their winning ways with decisive wins over St. Bonaventure and rival Thacher. Senior Grace Fuss continues to dominate from her number one position having dropped only one game out of 55 this season. Equally as dominant this season has been the senior/junior duo of Carol Cai and Fritze Mayer, who have gone 9-0 to match the mark of Fuss. For most teams, just having those three players at the top would be enough to compete. That is the tip of the iceberg for this strong team. Following closely behind Fuss is sophomore Aminah Hill. After taking three sets from Thacher, Coach Trevor Thorpe said of Hill, “Aminah played her best tennis.” The team is riding a 37-match Tri-Valley League win streak dating back to 2014. They will look to continue adding to that streak as league play continues through October.
As for the team that competes on the most surfaces, cross country is still racing at a very high level. In their only home meet of the year, the boys took second place while the girls finished first, with a clean sweep in scoring, placing the top eight runners. The boys squad was led by senior co-captain Tesfa Asmara, who finished in fifth place on the day, good for a 13th all-time finish for boys on the Cate course. He was followed by sophomores Nick Patrick (7th) and Peter Wood (11th). For the girls, they were once again led by sophomore co-captain Anna DiSorbo. Her first place finish at 18:49 broke the course record by a minute and thirteen seconds. A record that had been set in 2002 by Sorrel Carradine. Co-captain Meena Baher jumped into sixth place on the all-time list with her 20:26 finishing time, and she was followed by sophomore Ella Gardner, freshmen Kendall Thorne, Lylie Bechtel, and Talia Tom, sophomore Kennedy Simpson, and finally freshman Phebe Hancock. It was a very impressive and dominating race for the Rams.
On an individual note, Anna DiSorbo ’22 was recognized this past Monday by the Santa Barbara Athletic Round Table as Athlete of the Week for her incredible racing to this point in the season. The SBART is an organization that recognizes standout performances by student-athletes in the county. Congratulations, Anna, on the well deserved recognition!
For all post-game recaps, please go to Game Recaps in the Media Hub section on the school website. You may also click on the link below.