This Week in Athletics
February 7, 2020
Spring season is only a few days away; however, many of those teams will be missing key members with four winter teams qualifying for their respective CIF playoffs. It has been an impressive few months for our soccer and basketball teams culminating in two league championships for girls basketball and boys soccer. It should be an exciting next couple of weeks on the Mesa.
The girls water polo team finished the season playing some of their best games. With only one senior on the squad, the team showed immense growth from all members in skill and work ethic. Freshmen Lylie Bechtel, Stella Meister, Liz Sutter, and Myla van Lynde have made incredible strides in their game and are looking forward to what they can accomplish next year. A huge thank you to lone senior Marissa Strauss for her incredible leadership and congratulations on a great four year career.
What a regular season for the boys soccer team — undefeated and league champions. The team has been led by senior co-captain Buba Fofanah, who found himself on the scoresheet in every game this year. The defensive unit has been impressive in their own right with senior co-captain Harry Corman and sophomore Kobby Nimako keeping opposing teams away from senior goalkeeper Devin Pai. The penultimate game against Bishop Diego, a 3-2 win, clinched the league for the Rams where they got goals from Corman, junior Will Deardorff and freshman Jae Lim. The team will await their playoff path with the first round beginning on Wednesday the 12th.
For the girls soccer team, “playoffs” started a few games earlier than expected. The Rams went into their last three games needing to win two of them and that is just what they did — taking care of business with back to back shutouts against La Reina and Grace Brethren. Junior goalkeeper Taylor Kane has continued to be a wall in net, tallying 18 saves in those two shutouts. Up front it has been the work of senior co-captains Neema Mugofwa and Grace Blankenhorn, along with juniors Lily Riehl and Tali Nam. Playoffs will begin either Tuesday or Thursday for the girls.
Boys basketball will be headed to playoffs having narrowly missed out on winning their league title. After dropping a tough game to rival Thacher, the boys bounced back with convincing wins over Grace Brethren and Laguna Blanca. In those wins, the team was led by its seniors — Khadim Pouye, Thomas Nettesheim, Parker May, Ethan Ng, Scott Holmes, and John Rigsby Shelburne. Those six have logged a lot of minutes for the team this year, and their leadership has helped put the team in a position for a strong playoff run. Their postseason bracket will be released on Sunday with the team’s first game on either Tuesday or Wednesday.
Possibly the most fearsome team this season has been the girls basketball team. If you’ve been fortunate enough to catch one of their games, you know just how hard they work as a group. Led by seniors Maya Blattberg and Piper Brooks, their defense has held teams to incredibly low numbers. That energetic defense has led to explosive offense, some of which has come from the hot shooting of sophomore Meena Baher. In the paint, it has been the strong play of junior Deborah Brittain wearing teams down early in games. The team heads into the playoffs riding an 11-game winning streak. The Rams await their seeding and opponent with the first contest set for next Thursday the 13th.
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.
https://www.cate.org/category/athletics/