Tennis: Girls tennis is on a win streak. After defeating Crystal Springs in mid-October, they went on to win matches against Pinewood with a final score of 6-1, and Notre Dame, where the score was 5-2. Dan Molin, upper school athletics director, singled out Harker singles players Daria Karakoula, grade 11, and Aranshi Kumar, grade 12, as being “especially dominant against Pinewood,” as well as junior Jenny Chen, who he said “continues to impress at #1 singles.” Nicole Dalal, grade 12, and Indica Sur, grade 11, were also noted for their court prowess as a doubles team. The girls are now 8-2 overall and 4-2 in the league.
Water Polo: Girls water polo had a packed couple of weeks. After winning in overtime against Fremont for a final score of 8-7, they played seven more games, five of which took place at the Western States Varsity Girls Water Polo Tournament in Modesto. They won three of their five games at the prestigious tournament, defeating Beyer, Ukiah and Newman, and losing only to San Joaquin and Bear Creek. Just one day before the tournament, they played their league foe, Mountain View, winning with a score of 11-5. The team also played Santa Clara High, losing 7-10. Keri Clifford, grade 11, and Anna Levine, grade 10, scored three goals each against Fremont, with Levine scoring the game winning point. Clifford went on to score an additional 16 goals during the weekend tournament. The girls are now 12-9 overall, 5-4 in league play.
The boys water polo team also played against Fremont and lost by only one point, with a final score of 12-13. Cole Manaster, grade 12, scored four goals in the game. The team came back for a victory over Santa Clara, winning the match 11-8, with Manaster and juniors Ryan Hume, Gilad Nilo and Karan Das-Grande scoring two goals each. Jason Yu, grade 12, had “a great showing in goal,” Molin says. The boys are now 7-10 overall.
Golf: The Harker girls golf team lost to Castilleja at the Los Lagos course, with the final tally coming in at 215-239. But the team came back to Los Lagos the next day, where they defeated Notre Dame High 222-286. Molin noted that sophomore Kristine Lin “continued her season long spectacular performances” with a 36 against Castilleja, which earned her medalist honors, and a 37 against Notre Dame. Patricia Huang, grade 11, also earned medalist honors with a one over par 35 at Notre Dame. Karen Wang, grade 12, tied her season best with a 42, while newcomer Connie Li, grade 10, shot her career best with a 55. The girls are now 4-3.
Football: Football suffered two more losses, one against Santa Clara and one against Monta Vista, dropping them to 2-5 for the season. Quarterback Spenser Quash, grade 11, threw 200 yards and four touchdowns during the Santa Clara game, two of them to sophomore Kevin Moss. The lone Harker score during the Monta Vista game came on what Molin called a “perfect throw” from Quash to Robert Deng, grade 11, on a 60 yard touchdown pass play.
Volleyball: The girls varsity volleyball team fought hard to remain undefeated, winning a five-set victory over Woodside Priory before finally losing their first game to King’s Academy. They are still tied for first place in the league, with an overall record of 6-1. Senior Alisha Mayor led the attack against Woodside with 20 kills, and had an additional 18 kills in the King’s Academy match.
Cross Country: The cross country team had their second league meet at Westmoor High. For the boys, freshman Corey Gonzales took first for Harker (and sixth overall), Proteek Biswas, grade 12, placed eighth overall, and junior Tyler Yeats took tenth. For the varisty girls, junior Ragini Bhattacharya placed 11th overall.
Harker will be recognizing all our awesome seniors on the tennis, football, water polo, and cheerleading teams this week.
From football, a big thank you to: Bradley Araki, Aaron Bisla, David Dominguez, Zach Ellenberg, David Fang, Gerard Glasauer, Daanish Jamal, Revanth Kosaraju, Jason Kuan, Jun Hee Lee, Rahul Madduluri, Avinash Patel, Angad Randhawa, Indraneel Salukhe, Saagar Sarin and Partha Vora.
On the boys and girls water polo teams, we want to recognize and thank Tariq Jahshan, Jagdeesh Kottapalli, Cole Manaster, Akshay Ramachandran, Jason Yu, Simrun Bhagat and Kaitlin Halloran.
To the senior tennis players Nicole Dalal, Aranshi Kumar and Tanya Piskun—a big thank you.
Finally, we want to recognize and thank Saira Ahuja and Jessica Lin, our senior cheerleaders.
GO EAGLES!!