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STANFORD FOOTBALL
Hogan still needs polish
VOLLEYBALL HONOR . . . Former Sacred Heart Prep middle blocker Jesse Ebner, who hit .533 with 20 kills in Yale’s sweep of Harvard and Dartmouth over the weekend, has been named the Ivy League Player of the Week in women’s volleyball. Ebner, a sophomore from Portola Valley, had 11 kills on 15 attempts in the 3-0 victory over Harvard and added nine kills in 15 attempts in the sweep of Dartmouth on Saturday. In addition, she had three aces and accounted for 15 points against Harvard and had seven digs against Dartmouth. Ebner is now hitting .403 for the season, which is the second best percentage in the Ivy League. This is the second Player of the Week honor for Ebner this season. She also was selected on Sept. 24. The Bulldogs, who have won seven of their last eight matches and are 3-0 in Ivy matches, host Penn and Princeton this weekend.
by Rick Eymer
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Knights get 5-meter penalty shot with 48 seconds to beat M-A, 8-7 by Keith Peters ack Bowen was animated more than usual as he paced the deck during Wednesday’s water polo match between his Menlo School boys and rival Menlo-Atherton. He pointed and shouted and verbally dissected
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nearly every play. Something clearly was up. “There’s something about this game that really meant something,” said Bowen, who was up late the night before, unable to sleep. There were a number of rea-
Friday Women’s volleyball: Utah at Stanford, 6 p.m.; Pac-12 Networks
Saturday Football: Stanford at Utah, 3 p.m.; Pac-12 Networks; KNBR (1050 AM); KZSU (90.7 FM)
Sunday Women’s soccer: at Stanford, 5 p.m.; Pac-12 Networks i Ì Ê*iÌiÀÃ
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Menlo moves closer to a title
ON THE AIR
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Menlo School goalie John Wilson (center) prepares to block one of his 12 shots, an attempt that eluded Menlo’s Nick Bisconti (left) and M-A’s Jack Beasley (3) during the Knights’ 8-7 PAL Bay Division victory Wednesday.
GOLF HONORS . . . Palo Alto junior golfers Jayshree Sarathy, Michelle Xie and Anna Zhou have been named HP Scholastic Junior AllAmericans, the American Junior Golf Association and Hewlett-Packard announced.
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sons, of course, why the showdown was so important. The obvious one was what Menlo’s 8-7 victory meant — a virtual PAL Bay Division championship as the Knights improved to 6-0 while dropping the Bears to 4-2 with four matches remaining. The second win over M-A this season also avenged last season’s single round-robin loss to the Bears, which ended Menlo’s string of 19 straight league titles (1993-2011). The triumph also help Bowen overcome his feeling that somehow he didn’t do his best coaching job last season as the Knights struggled to a 14-11 overall record and were knocked out of the Central Coast Section Division II playoffs in the quarterfinals — despite being the No. 2 seed. “I had a strange feeling like I let last year’s team down,” he said, “and that I had to make sure that this year’s Jack Bowen was a better coach than that.” Mission accomplished. Menlo (14-2) already has equaled last year’s win total and the players are competing at a much-higher level. That was evident in Wednesday’s match as the Knights battled back from early deficits, took a two-goal lead before losing it
evin Hogan, the winning quarterback in all 10 games he’s been the starter for the Stanford football team, remains an unfinished product. Last Saturday, Washington exposed some of the things Hogan needs to improve upon, accuracy being one of them. The fifthranked Cardinal won the game, 31-28, though Hogan produced his least-productive passing game of the season. Part of the reason was Washington’s defense, ranked first in the Pac-12 in pass defense as well as total defense. When Stanford (3-0 in the Pac12, 5-0 overall) travels to Salt Lake City to take on Utah (0-2, 3-2) on Saturday (3 p.m.), Hogan will be going up against the conference’s 10th-ranked defense. “There’s a pit in his stomach,” Cardinal coach David Shaw said. “He can’t wait to play the next game. He’s pushing himself to be as good as he can be.” In terms of his experience, it’s as though Hogan were nearing the end of his first full season as a quarterback. It’s been a highprofile experience to be sure, which includes sparkling efforts in winning the Pac-12 championship, the Rose Bowl and leading the charge against Oregon. “He’s going to go through a couple more growing pains,” Shaw said. “He’s not a finished product. He’s going to have a couple more outstanding games and he will have a couple more rough games. I see a guy who is not satisfied.” Hogan has thrown an interception in each of his past four games and he also has 11 touchdown passes. He’s ranked 10th in the conference in passing yardage per game, but he’s also ranked fourth in passing efficiency. There’s plenty of upside with Hogan, who can still direct a game with the best of them. That’s another quality Shaw admires. “Washington did a great job of pass coverage,” Shaw said. “Kevin missed four throws, including one on fourth down. We were terrible on third downs.” Hogan likely will rebound against the Utes, who do present a physical defensive line. “They are hard to move and they are hard to block,” Shaw said. Utah is ranked fourth in rushing defense while Stanford is fifth in rushing offense. Watch for Hogan to dissect the Utes’ secondary.
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GRID HONOR . . . Fresno State sophomore wide receiver Davante Adams from Palo Alto High has been named the Mountain West Offensive Player of the Week, the league announced Monday. This is the first career Mountain West weekly award for Adams. In Fresno State’s 61-14 win at Idaho on Saturday, Adams tied the school record for receptions in a game with 16. That established a MW single-game record for the most by a sophomore, surpassing the previous mark of 15. It also tied for the second-most in MW history. Adams finished the game with a season-high 185 yards receiving and a career-high three touchdowns. Adams had seven catches for 133 yards and two touchdowns in the first quarter and 13 catches for 176 yards and his three scores in the first half. The 13 first-half receptions shattered the school record for catches in any half of a football game. Adams is tied for the national lead with 10.4 receptions per game, tied for fourth nationally with seven touchdown receptions and ranks second in the Mountain West with 99.2 receiving yards per game.
Cardinal quarterback could get his shine back against Utah
Menlo School coach Jack Bowen had good reason to applaud the efforts of his players after a win over M-A virtually clinched the division title.
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