Issue 2 Extended sports beats Volume 86
Blueprint Photo/Emmet Fretwell
Cross Country
By Melina Galacatos, Online Editor-in-Chief
The fall season has just begun, and the Acalanes cross country athletes are on their marks and ready to race. Throughout the summer and into the start of the year, they have been putting in hours building strength and stamina to reach their goals for the year ahead.
“So far we have been mixing in interval training and more focus on strength and conditioning. Senior Dash Tinianow said. “We have never really committed to weightlifting as a team, and this season we have been doing so twice a week, so I think that that will make a big difference and help our team out a lot.
The Dons have attended several invitationals already; the Saint Mary’s Invitational on Sept 6, the Viking Opener Invitational on Sept. 13, and most recently, the Eye Opener Invitational in Petaluma on Sept. 20, in which many athletes finished with high ranking times. Senior Neve Murphy finished first in the women's category, senior Harry Zimmerman finished in first place overall in the boys’ category.
Alongside pushing themselves in the weight room and on the trails, athletes have come together as a community.
“I feel great about the team's chemistry so far, everyone gets along so well, and we are a close knit group,” Junior Anju Sekhon said. “This season is shaping up to look great, and I am really excited.
“The overall competitive atmosphere has gotten stronger compared to last year. Everyone is really pushing themselves to either earn or keep a spot on varsity, and that’s driving us all to improve together,” Ellerbrock said.
Plans for the season lock into place, and the Dons attend the Be the GOAT Invitational on Sept. 27. Beyond individual races and meets, the team is aiming to qualify for state.
“It has been a while since our full team went, and I think that it would definitely be deserved this year,” Tinianow said. “Everyone has been putting in a lot of work, and it would be a huge improvement over our previous seasons, but it is definitely possible.
Blueprint Photo/Gavin Lee
Flag Football
By Natalie Pecci, Online Editor
The Flag football team (9-0, 5-0 league) is off to a strong start, remaining undefeated.
On Sept. 10, the team faced off against College Park, a successful team in the past. It was a close game, with College Park up six at halftime. The Dons were able to hold them off for the rest of the game, scoring two touchdowns along the way, and bringing the final score to 13-6.
The next day, Sep. 11, the team traveled to Monte Vista to take on the Mustangs. In the first quarter, quarterback and junior Ines Coyne had a 15-yard scramble into the end zone for a touchdown. In the second quarter, Coyne, on a fourth-and-goal pass, connected with fellow junior Mira Clark for the second touchdown of the game. Clark was able to get into the end zone again to bring in the extra point. Going into halftime, the score was 13-0, and it stayed that way, with neither team able to put a ball in the end zone for a touchdown.
Looking for their seventh consecutive win, the team traveled to Concord to face the Bears, where they dominated, winning the game 48-6.
The team was on the road again on Sept. 22 against Alhambra. The Dons were able to get on the scoreboard and win the game 6-0.
The team has its eyes set on a couple of games against teams that are its toughest competition. These include games on Oct. 1 against Clayton Valley and Oct. 15 against Berean Christian.
“We actually have a few [tough competition teams] but definitely Clayton Valley. They’re a really aggressive team and we’re definitely looking to beat them. Berean Christian’s really good too,” captain and senior Lesley Trowbridge said.
The team has been successful so far and aims to keep up the work, carrying it into the future.
“The most important part is to keep practicing and having a good attitude during games,” Trowbridge said. “It’s super important that you’re in the right mindset and that you’re ready to play when it’s time to go on the field and follow through with everything that you practice.”
Blueprint Photo/JP Birdwell
Football
By Will Miller, Podcast Manager
The Dons have marched through their first three games, starting off the season a perfect (4-0) overall and are yet to play a league game. On Sept 19, the team grounded the College Park Falcons away from home (42-7). In Pleasant Hill the team started off slow, ending the first half up (14-7) but Senior Josh Elerts came out of half time on a mission scoring two touchdowns in the third quarter. After that performance, the Dons traveled to Concord to take on Mt Diablo, where they won.
Dons new head coach Coach Blue attributed the dons success to a disciplined culture.
“What we ask is your best effort and to hold ourselves accountable , we ask guys to do their job, we don't leave things to chance, we control what we can control,” Acalanes Head Football Coach Blue said.
Blueprint Photo/JP Birdwell
Men’s Water Polo
By Noah Frankel, Online Editor
The Acalanes Men's Water Polo is on a strong run with their games, currently on a 13-game win streak. After a close first game loss, they started to win and have not stopped, leading to a (13-1) record overall.
A strong weekend led to a 19-3 victory against Justin-Siena on Sept. 19, a 15-5 win against Concord on Sept. 20, and another 17-3 win against Foothill the same day.
“The team chemistry is actually feeling really good,” Senior Mason Schlehr said. “Just in practice, specifically, yesterday or 2 days ago in practice, and then just last game, our chemistry was way up.”
Schrlur believes that chemistry is one of the most important aspects of the game and that it leads to success in both practice and games.
The team is hopeful for their future games after such a strong start to the season, although they are ready to face competition in their upcoming league games. Currently top ten in the state for D2, men's water polo is looking for a successful year.
The team plays Miramonte on Sept 8th, Northgate on Sept. 15, and Alhambra on Sept. 16, hoping to continue their successful year.
The team has many goals for the season and wants to continue its win streak through chemistry and hard work.
The main goal is to win NCS,” Senior Thomas Parrott said. “Hopefully D1 or D2, whichever we get put into.”
Blueprint Photo/Isiah Castillo
Women’s Golf
By Kylie Kaplan, Staff Writer
The women's golf team (2-4 overall, 1-4 league) is off to a strong start this season putting up strong performances in their matches.
The team started off their season with a win against Clayton Valley Charter on Aug. 25, where the Dons dominated with a team score of 193-252.
On Sep. 2, they played a match against Northgate with an ending score of 300-215. Their next match was on Sep. 3 scoring 288-252 against Campolindo. The team played another match on Sep. 10 against Miramonte with a score of 239-254. With their first invitational of the season being on Sep. 15, the team got an impressive second place. On Sep. 17 the team had a match against Northgate ending with a score of 271-207.
As the season progresses the team is focused on improving both their performance and their unity on and off the course.
“The team culture this year is actually really good. We have a much larger team this year. We have new sophomores or even freshmen on the team and overall it's actually becoming way more adhesive,” Co-captain and senior, Taylor Baker, said.
While the team practices at several local golf courses, the coaches are working hard to coordinate practice times and match locations based on availability of courses.
“Golf is really reliant on course availability and so we started making all the arrangements in the middle of summer so home courses are Contra Costa Country Club and Rossmoor,” Head Coach, Erin Field, said.
As the team strives to improve in both skill and ranking, they are also focused on enjoying the game.
“It's really just about having them stay positive and enjoy the game. It's a really hard game, and can be very frustrating,” Field said.
Blueprint Photo/Arielle Sears
Women’s Tennis
By Elliot Van Ornum, Staff Writer
The Dons get ready to bounce back as the Acalanes women’s tennis team (1-1 ) continues their Fall season. They began their season with a win against league matchup Bishop O’Dowd and have since played in competitive matchups such as Miramonte and Campo where they came up short in an 1-8 loss on Sept. 18.
So far, the team has outlined the goal of making it to the North Coast Sectionals (NCS) to take on the challenge of playing at an even higher level, even though they already face difficult matchups in league play. The Dons have upcoming matchups against Campo and Las Lomas before they circle back to play Northgate on Oct. 21.
“They're expanding the North Coast section playoff for tennis, which means more teams are going to get invited, which means we might get invited if we have a good season.” Head Coach Sharon Langtry said.
The team has also shared that they would like to see development in their play as a team.
“[We’d like to] improve upon last year's season and see if we can get some more wins,” Langtry said. “We've already had a successful preseason. We were 3 and out and so that's better than last year.”
Although the team has struggled against some of the toughest teams in their league, many players see it as an opportunity to improve both personally and as a team.
“So far our season has been pretty good,” junior Grace Colaco said. “We’ve played many of the most difficult teams already but we’ve tried our hardest and we will improve more throughout the season.”
Blueprint Photo/Emmet Fretwell
Women’s Volleyball
By Nico Roig, Blueprint Coordinator
The women’s volleyball team (9-4 overall, 1-3 league) continues their season and prepares for league play.
The Dons bounced back from their Sept. 11 loss to Las Lomas with a 3-1 win against Benicia on Sept. 16. Then they took on league rival Campolindo, where they were defeated 0-3
“Benicia was definitely a good test for us in terms of response and trying to test some new offensive and defensive strategies, so really Campo will be a good test of that. They are similar to lots of the top teams we will face in league. So seeing if those adjustments are good enough to beat those teams [will be important],” Head Coach Haley Walsh said.
The team gets a chance for revenge as they rematches against College Park, Las Lomas and Campolindo, on Oct. 2, Oct 12, and Oct. 16, respectively.
In preparation for these games, the team has worked on fine-tuning their formations and connections.
“We’ve tried to adjust our defense to be a little more tailored to high school, where our high school players kind of hit in the same spots. It’s a little bit different in club, I feel like they switch their shots up a bit more, so we try to adjust that. And really trying to utilize our offense and get the chemistry going in between the setters and hitters,” Walsh said.
Blueprint Photo/Gavin Lee
Women’s Water Polo
By Audrey Parkin, Online Editor-in-Chief
The Acalanes women’s water polo team (8-2 overall, 0-0 league) is hoping to continue the season strong.
Following a 16-8 win against Tamalpais, the team kept the winning energy going with a 13-3 win against Monte Vista and a 9-6 win against Arroyo Grande on Sept. 19.
The next day on Sept. 20, the Dons dominated against Davis Sr. and Granite Bay with scores of 10-4 and 13-1 respectively.
This year, the team is bigger and deeper than previous years, which helps them with momentum during games and practice.
“Last year, in [a big game] against the top level competition, we really only felt comfortable going one person into our bench. ... This year we’re going three, four, even five players into our bench, and that gives everybody a little more rest and ideally a little more energy for those top games,” Head Coach Misha Buchel said.
In addition to a bigger team, they have more underclassmen, which means that they will be challenged to adjust accordingly.
“We’re so young with the freshmen and sophomores that are new to the team, [so] we have work to do to make sure that we’re in a place that we want to be [in] by the end of the season with them gaining experience and the growing pains of having new players,” Buchel said.
Overall, the team is optimistic about the rest of the season.
“[Our goals are to] ideally win DALs or NCS. I think we have a good shot for that. I think besides that our goals are to do the best we can and give it our all,” senior Estelle Block said.
Next, the team will face Redwood on Sept. 30, followed by their first league game against Las Lomas on Oct. 1.
“Once we get into the league season, our biggest rivals ... are typically Miramonte, Campo, and on the north coast typically Carodalet and San Ramon, so once we get to the league season, we love to play those games,” Buchel said
