Life of an Athletic Director in October is filled with weekend tournaments, meets, senior celebrations, league championships and the start of CCS playoffs. This week change was in the air as the weather started to take a turn. Fall teams have been practicing and playing for nearly two months and for some the end is in sight. I spent most of my week in transit supporting as many teams as possible. This is no easy task with 5 teams in action last Saturday. While I was with Varsity tennis at the NDB Tournament all three of our Volleyball teams were also participating in a tournament and our Cross Country Team was competing at Crystal Springs. While I was with Tennis our Freshmen Volleyball team had a commotion. Spectators from the other team begin screaming and stomping during play. Our community responded and this lead to a brief disruption. During the stoppage our coach kept our team focused on the play at hand and not on the environment. When I first heard of the commotion I was reassured by our parents that our Coach handled the situation in the Mercy way, respectfully and kept our team ready. The Freshmen went on to capture the Consolation Championships following in our Junior Varsity teams footsteps. To quote the great John Wooden, "Young people need models, not critics." I am pleased with all of our coaches and their ability to model the Mercy way through their play.
On Saturday our Varsity Cross Country team ran in the Crystal Springs Invitational on a chilly day. It was about 25 degrees cooler than Wednesday when they ran a similar course.
Ysabella Matsumoto ‘25 continues her hot streak as our top runner and posted a New personal record running 2 seconds faster than her time at League Finals last year (and 1:51 faster than her time on Wed.) Elise Trinidad ‘23 was our #2 clocking in at 23:40, a season best for her, Nicole Castagna ‘23 was our 3 in 24:07, a New Personal Record for her. Isabelle Webb ‘26 was our # 4 today running a New PR of 25:28 a 3:47 drop from Wed & Sophia Knapp ‘23 was our # 5 with a Season Best of 25:35, a 3:26 drop from Wed.
On Monday Mercy and four other teams competed at Burlingame Country Club. Crystal Springs hosted Mercy, Harker, and Notre Dame San Jose. The match counted against Crystal Springs as well as Notre Dame San Jose. Mercy beat Notre Dame San Jose 268 to 284 and lost to Crystal Springs 231 to 268.
On Saturday Mercy tennis traveled to College of San Mateo for an All Day tournament hosted by Notre Dame Belmont. The team played against Presentation in their first round. Sachi Syler ‘24 and Emma Hanson ‘23 battled in an hour and half long match at number 2 doubles. They were victorious 10-7 in the third set and that swung the momentum in Mercy’s favor. Zoe Chow ‘23 and Lindsay Barrera ‘24 were the first off with a quick victory at 3 doubles. Next up was Persia Ehteshami ‘24 in the win column. Audrey O’Brien ‘25 won the clinching match for Mercy. In the second round Mercy faced Notre Dame Belmont. In the second round Mercy faced Notre Dame Belmont. After a long first round the team made subsitutions. For the first time this season Maria Shelley '24 and Persia Ehteshami '24 paired up at number 1 doubles and won in a third set 7-6, 4-6, 10-7. Notre Dame won the overall match 5-2. On Tuesday Mercy hosted Pinewood and lost in a close 4-3 battle. Lindsey Barrera '24 and Hayden Damagaard Hughes '24 won a close match at two doubles in a third set. At singles Persia Ehteshami '24 won in straight sets 6-0, 6-3.
Freshmen
After a long break, the Freshmen Volleyball team competed in the NDB Tiger Cup. In the first round of pool play they lost to Monte Vista 23-25, 18-25. In the second round they beat Edison 25-17, 25-14. Next up they beat Notre Dame San Jose 27-25, 25-22. After pool play they beat Hollister 25-18 27-25 and finished the day as Consolation Champions. On Tuesday Mercy traveled to Notre Dame Belmont. There was progress from the first time they played Notre Dame with set scores improving the team was unable to get the victory losing in straight sets 24-26, 18-25. On Thursday the Freshmen hosted Menlo, they dropped the first set 16-25 before storming back to a 25-22 second set victory. The third set was back and forth with Mercy winning 15-12.
Junior Varsity
Mercy Junior Varsity Volleyball competed in their final tournament of the season this past Saturday. They made quick work of Hillsdale winning 25-7 and 25-8. In the second round they beat Santa Cruz in straight sets 25-18, 25-15. In the final round of pool play they beat Hollister 25-7. 25-14. Next up they defeated was Half Moon Bay with a score of 25-15, 25-18. In the final round of the day the team lost to Sacred Heart Cathedral. They took home a gold Pumpkin and finished 2nd in the Gold Division. On Tuesday Mercy Junior Varsity beat Notre Dame Belmont in straight sets 25-23, 25-19. On Thursday the team continued to dominate against Menlo with scores of 25-17, 25-17.
Varsity
On Saturday Morning Mercy came out swinging against Summit Shasta winning 25-20 and 25-17. In the next round against Aragon the team fell 16-25, 17-25. They faced a strong Half Moon Bay team that pushed Mercy to a third set but Mercy was victorious, 19-25, 25-21, 18-16. In the final match of they day the lost to Salinas 14-25, 13-25.
On Tuesday Mercy took on Notre Dame Belmont. In their senior night themed pajamas Mercy crashed the slumber party. Notre Dame was ahead most of the first set until the end with some crucial kills from Anna Snigorenko '23, Mercy won 25-23. In the second set Notre dame found some holes in our defense and won 20-25. In the third set Mercy hit cruise control with some great defense from Raquel Calderon '23 and took the set 25-17. The fourth set proved tricky as the officials stopped play for a significant amount of time to uncover that Notre Dame had been out of rotation. However, they came to this conclusion too late to give the standard penalty of a loss of a point. Instead they yellow carded the entire time. After that stoppage Mercy had a difficult time starting back up and Notre Dame took the fourth set 18-25. The fifth and final set was a roller coaster with Mercy going up 4-1 early only to have Notre Dame charge back 7-5. In the end Katie Callagy '23 stuffed the last ball and that sent our bench running on to the court to celebrate the 15-11 victory. Mercy improves to 4-2 in league. On Thursday the team hosted Menlo at Serra. They got off to a fast start taking the first set 25-10. The team cooled down and Menlo began to get aggresive taking the next two sets 19-25, 25-27. Mercy got back on the scoreboard in the fourth set 25-23. In the fifth and final set Menlo was victorious 15-8.
On Friday Mercy participated in the Sister Splash. This is the pink week game for Water Polo scheduled against Notre Dame Belmont. The pool deck was decorated with pink streamers, balloons, and the team donned pink swim caps. The Junior Varsity teams kicked off the evening with a splash. In a back and forth game Notre Dame edged Mercy 5-4. In the varsity game defense was key in this game with both teams in and low scoring game. Kelly Philpott '23, Katie Koenig '23, and Summer McGuire '23 found the back of the net but Notre Dame ended up winning 9-6.On Tuesday Mercy hosted Capuchino at Priory. The team got off to a quick start with 4 goals from Summer McGuire '23 and Kelly Philpott '23. After a comfortable lead all members on the team got valuable minutes. While the highlight of the evening went to goalie Dylan Sainz '25 with her first shut out. On Wednesday the team hosted Sequoia in their Senior game at Serra. Varsity was edged out 13-9 and junior varsity lost another close one 5-4. On Thursday Mercy hosted Hillsdale in one of the most exciting games of the season. The game went down to the wire which included double overtime and sudden death. Hillsdale scored in sudden victory winning 13-12. Summer McGuire '23 had 5 goals on the evening. With daylight fading the junior varsity team had a modified game of 2 ten minute halves and the team fell 1-7.