Local players help Stanford take national title in women's water polo
San Rafael's Ella Woodhead scored a late goal to help secure the NCAA Championship for the Stanford women's water polo team on Sunday.
Woodhead, who attended Sacred Heart Prep, scored late in the fourth quarter to give the Cardinal an 11-9 lead against USC that would hold up as the game's final margin. Former Tam High standout Samantha Sternfels also played in the game for the Cardinal.
Woodhead, a freshman, had 10 goals to go with nine assists for Stanford (24-1) this season. Sternfels contributed five goals and two assists for Stanford during the campaign.
The national title was the second consecutive for Stanford and ninth overall for the program.
College softball
Former Redwood High standout Sadie Leonard was named the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) pitcher of the week after going 3-0 to lead NCAA Division III Williams College to the conference title.
Leonard pitched 21 innings to pick up victories against Trinity, Bates and Tufts. Leonard allowed two runs, only one of them earned, while striking out 35 hitters.
Williams advances to the NCAA D-III Tournament, which begins on Thursday. The Ephs (22-15) got drawn into a four-team, doubleelimination pool with Salisbury, Framingham St., and UMass Dartmouth.
For the season. Leonard has a 16-4 record to go along with a microscopic 0.68 earned-run average. Leonard has allowed 76 hits and stuck out 220 batters in 133 innings of work.
Prep badminton
Cici Lin took third in the North Coast Section girls singles tournament and helped San Domenico finish second in the team standings with 19 points.
Lin won a pair of matches before running into a nationally ranked player, Moreau Catholic's Sherry Liu, in the semifinals. Lin bounced back to win her next two matches — including one against
San Domenico teammate Becky Xiang — to take third and earn some points for the Panthers. Xiang eventually took fifth, earning another point for San Domenico.
Martin Peng dropped out of the winner's bracket in the boys singles quarterfinals stage, but rallied in the consolation bracket to finish in third place.
Boys tennis
The Marin Academy doubles team of Charlie Hyman and William Young won their first round match in the North Coast Section Division II tournament on Monday.
The team — Marin's only entry into either the singles or doubles tournaments — defeated Arcata's Lootah Hall and Miles Schmidt, 7-6 (4), 6-1, to advance to the quarterfinals. The result of that match was not available at press time.