Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Sixth Grade Girls Volleyball Jamboree
Monday, October 24, 2011
8th Grade Girls Highlanders Volleyball Tournament
The 8th Grade Highlanders Volleyball team made an impressive showing in the post-season tournament hosted by Stanley Middle School in Lafayette. In the first match, played on Monday, October 24, Piedmont faced Doris Eaton and came up short in spite of excellent defensive plays by Lizzie Bjork and Mia Kate Hood, and a well-timed block by Eliza Lucas. The second match was a thriller against Foothill with Piedmont winning in 3 games: 19-25; 25-19 and 15-7. The game’s highlights included aces by Hood, Allie Frankel and Jackie Roland. Audrey Meyersieck and Sierra Singer provided solid passes and clutch defensive digs to set up a solid attack offense led by Makena Stone, Lucas and Roland.
The tournament continued on Tuesday with Piedmont playing top seeded Walnut Creek. The tightly contested first game ended on an impressive kill by Roland to finish the game at 26-24. Lucas, Hood, Bjork and Emilia Rivera provided the team with consistent serving throughout the game. Game two was controlled by the Highlanders from the outset. Back row passes and excellent digs by Meyersieck and Frankel set up great opportunities for Singer to provide juicy sets to Stone, Roland and Meyersieck. The Highlanders walked away with the game two victory 25-15.
On Wednesday, the Highlanders were defeated by Martinez in the fourth round of the tournament in a very close two game match, 25-23, 25-22. In the first game, coming from behind, Bjork served six strong in a row to bring the team back to 24-23, but alas the opposing team got the next point to win the first game. In the second game, Meyersieck gave the Highlanders a strong lead with six service points in a row. Steady defense and all around play by Roland, along with a couple of nice digs by Olive Werby, kept the game close. Julia Kelly, Lucas and Stone also contributed, with multiple kills each.
Monday, October 17, 2011
8th Grade Volleyball Victory in Berkeley
This past Tuesday the 8th Grade Girls Highlanders volleyball team took on Berkeley’s Longfellow Middle School. The girls scored a decisive
victory, winning the first game 25-10 and the second game 25-18.
Lizzie Bjork had some amazing digs, shutting down Longfellow's most
powerful server, and Makena Stone and Audrey Meyerseick each had 3
kills. Strong serving carried the day: Jackie Roland and Sierra
Singer each had 4 aces and Emilia Rivera closed out the match by
serving 8 straight points.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Wet Weather and a Hornet's Nest
as reported by Coach Len Goldman
The weather made a dramatic change this week and the heat was replaced by cool temperatures and rain. I am very proud of the kids for showing up for both the meets and practices despite the wet conditions. I heard some of the other sports were canceled because of wet fields, but that didn't stop our cross country runners, it was nice to see the mud on their legs.
Our meet at Golden Gate Fields Race Track on October 3rd was the second largest meet in league history, behind ours. We had a squad of about 60 kids and despite the soggy turf, the flat course still proved fast. I have placings for our runners but no times yet. In the Boys 6th grade race, Michael Blake led the way with a 10th place finish and in 18th place was Walter Teitelbaum. Again space does not allow me to name all the kids who ran, but several coaches from other schools noticed the large contingent of PMS runners and their purple jerseys at the meet.
For the 6th grade girls, Minnie Cooper was our top finisher in 7th place, followed by Kate Gross-Whitaker in 13th. Natasha Long and Jacqueline Hollander ran well, and the coaching staff is noticing improvement in the running of many of the team members. For the 7/8th grade boys, Everett Ellis continued his fine season with a 5th place finish. Blake Gruendl was 14th and Kyle Mortimer had his best race so far finishing in 17th place. About 130 boys ran in this race. The final race of the day was 7/8th grade race and running in her first race of the season for the team was Maddie Copeland, 8th grader and a 4 year veteran of the team. She finished in 3rd place and pending official results set a new 8th grade girls school course record. PMS had 5 girls finish among the top 17 places, Ava Podell in 9th, Emmie Seevak in 10th, Katie St. Claire in 15th and Mia Arthur in 17th.
The October 6th meet at Prospect Sierra presented more than the usual challenges to the runners. A hornet's nest was disturbed during the 6th grade girls race and some girls got stung. Subsequent races had to run an altered course of an unknown distance to avoid the hornets, but some kids continued to be stung. In addition, the City of El Cerrito had a work crew and equipment on site that was a bit of an obstacle. Despite these obstacles our team competed well. Regarding the races themselves, in the 6th grade girls race PMS had three girls in the top 10. Minnie Cooper was 4th, Ava Biehn was 5th and Olivia Adams was 8th.
In the 6th grade boys race, an altered course was run from the usual, plus several of the lead boys ran past the finish chute and had to back track. Mitchell Bloemker finished 4th and his time of 7:05 will be considered a course record with an asterisk. Both Michael Blake and Quinn Willrich ran in their first race and finished 9th and 12th respectively.
The 7/8th grade girls race was perhaps the highlight race of the day for our team, with a 1-2 finish. Emma Seevak, 8th grade won the race in a time of 8:10, it was her first win in a cross country race and Ava Podell, 7th grade, was a very close 2nd place finisher about 7 seconds back. Leah Kochendorfer, 7th grade, also had a top 10 finish in 5th place. Rounding out our top 5 finishers were Monte Miller in 12th place and Megan Wilensky in 17th place.
The final race of the day, 7/8th grade boys featured Mingwei Samuel, 8th grade, running a very fine race and finishing in 3rd place. Our next runner was Josh Wood, 7th grade, who was the 11th place finisher. Nick Loduca had a solid race and was the 13th place finisher.
The weather made a dramatic change this week and the heat was replaced by cool temperatures and rain. I am very proud of the kids for showing up for both the meets and practices despite the wet conditions. I heard some of the other sports were canceled because of wet fields, but that didn't stop our cross country runners, it was nice to see the mud on their legs.
Our meet at Golden Gate Fields Race Track on October 3rd was the second largest meet in league history, behind ours. We had a squad of about 60 kids and despite the soggy turf, the flat course still proved fast. I have placings for our runners but no times yet. In the Boys 6th grade race, Michael Blake led the way with a 10th place finish and in 18th place was Walter Teitelbaum. Again space does not allow me to name all the kids who ran, but several coaches from other schools noticed the large contingent of PMS runners and their purple jerseys at the meet.
For the 6th grade girls, Minnie Cooper was our top finisher in 7th place, followed by Kate Gross-Whitaker in 13th. Natasha Long and Jacqueline Hollander ran well, and the coaching staff is noticing improvement in the running of many of the team members. For the 7/8th grade boys, Everett Ellis continued his fine season with a 5th place finish. Blake Gruendl was 14th and Kyle Mortimer had his best race so far finishing in 17th place. About 130 boys ran in this race. The final race of the day was 7/8th grade race and running in her first race of the season for the team was Maddie Copeland, 8th grader and a 4 year veteran of the team. She finished in 3rd place and pending official results set a new 8th grade girls school course record. PMS had 5 girls finish among the top 17 places, Ava Podell in 9th, Emmie Seevak in 10th, Katie St. Claire in 15th and Mia Arthur in 17th.
The October 6th meet at Prospect Sierra presented more than the usual challenges to the runners. A hornet's nest was disturbed during the 6th grade girls race and some girls got stung. Subsequent races had to run an altered course of an unknown distance to avoid the hornets, but some kids continued to be stung. In addition, the City of El Cerrito had a work crew and equipment on site that was a bit of an obstacle. Despite these obstacles our team competed well. Regarding the races themselves, in the 6th grade girls race PMS had three girls in the top 10. Minnie Cooper was 4th, Ava Biehn was 5th and Olivia Adams was 8th.
In the 6th grade boys race, an altered course was run from the usual, plus several of the lead boys ran past the finish chute and had to back track. Mitchell Bloemker finished 4th and his time of 7:05 will be considered a course record with an asterisk. Both Michael Blake and Quinn Willrich ran in their first race and finished 9th and 12th respectively.
The 7/8th grade girls race was perhaps the highlight race of the day for our team, with a 1-2 finish. Emma Seevak, 8th grade won the race in a time of 8:10, it was her first win in a cross country race and Ava Podell, 7th grade, was a very close 2nd place finisher about 7 seconds back. Leah Kochendorfer, 7th grade, also had a top 10 finish in 5th place. Rounding out our top 5 finishers were Monte Miller in 12th place and Megan Wilensky in 17th place.
The final race of the day, 7/8th grade boys featured Mingwei Samuel, 8th grade, running a very fine race and finishing in 3rd place. Our next runner was Josh Wood, 7th grade, who was the 11th place finisher. Nick Loduca had a solid race and was the 13th place finisher.
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