School has begun, and the fall sports season is underway! Harker tennis is off to a scorching hot start, while underclassmen are making big impacts already. Let’s get to it!
Tennis
The girls tennis team opened up its season by going 5-0 to become the Division 6 champs at the prestigious California Tennis Classic in Fresno, battling 100 degree heat to finish unbeaten! This week, they extended their hot start with victories over Santa Clara and Wilcox, to make them 7-0. The team will look to improve to 8-0 against King’s Academy on Thursday.
Golf
Freshman Katherine Zhu made her Harker debut a day to remember, finishing third in a 90-golfer field at Poplar Creek. Zhu shot an even par 71, leading the Eagles to an eighth place finish. Juniors Ashley Zhong and Daphne Liang also chipped in with scores of 85 and 87, respectively. Zhu continued her sizzling play by shooting a 3 under par 31 at Los Lagos to pace the Eagles to a 205-230 win over Evergreen High School. Meanwhile, Zhong’s 41 and freshman Vanessa Tyagi’s 42 contributed to Harker’s best team score ever at Los Lagos since scoring changed from four to five scores in 2010. Zhu’s performance is the best girls Harker round in history. Furthermore, on Monday, Zhu shot an even par 72 to finish tied for third at the Poppy Ridge Classic. The lady linksters finished in 12th place out of 22 teams. Liang and Zhong carded 83 and 84 respectively. With the pre-season tournaments and matches concluding this week, the Eagles are ready to start the WBAL season against Notre Dame San Jose on Monday at Los Lagos.
Cross Country
Last year’s rookie standout Niki Iyer, back now for her sophomore year, began the fall 2014 season with a strong second place finish at the Toro Park cross country meet on Saturday. Juniors Alex Dellar and Maya Jeyendran and junior Mary Najibi all ran around 23:00 for the girls, who finished in eighth, while senior Corey Gonzales, junior Jack Rothschild and senior Rahul Balakrishnan all ran well for the boys. Gonzales’ run was a highlight for the men, as his eighth-place finish landed him firmly in the top 10.
Water Polo
Both the boys and the girls opened up the year with tournaments, with the boys going 1-3 at the Lynbrook Tournament and the girls going 1-2 at the Wilcox Tournament last week. The girls’ performance included an 11-5 victory against San Lorenzo Valley. On Tuesday, the boys defeated Lynbrook 16-8. This marks the first time Harker has defeated Lynbrook in at least eight years! Congratulations, boys! The girls squad lost to Lynbrook 8-5. Anushka Das, grade 12, scored three goals.
Football
The football squad is off to an 0-2 start. Senior quarterback Keanu Forbes threw for two touchdowns and ran for another in a 38-21 loss to Overfelt in the season opener. Senior Christian Williams and freshman Nate Kelly each caught a touchdown, and senior kicker Alyssa Amick added an extra point in the loss. The team then fell in its second game to Del Mar High, despite touchdowns by Forbes, Williams, junior Johnathon Keller and sophomore Will Park. They’ll look for their first victory of the year this Friday at Swett High School.
Volleyball
This season started off with two challenges for the girls, who were pitted against top teams in their first two matches. They lost to a strong Homestead team one game to three in the season opener, then dropped their second game to St. Francis despite 12 kills from senior Shreya Dixit and seven from junior Shannon Richardson. This week, girls varsity volleyball defeated visiting Carmel on Tuesday 23-25, 26-24, 25-13, 25-12 behind 28 kills for Dixit. The girls host Willow Glen Thursday night.