New Athlete Information

Sports tryouts week usually means the athletic calendar is quiet as we gear up for a new season. That's what I figured this week would look like when we put our calendar together in the spring—boy was I wrong. You know it was a good week when you have to make repeated calls to former Mayfield coaching guru Helen Wade to ask about the accomplishments of teams from nearly 40 years ago!

After a wonderful run through the first three rounds of the CIF playoffs, the Varsity volleyball team found itself in the CIF Semifinals last Saturday on the road against a talented Chino Hills squad. The Cubs dropped the first set, then battled back and took the second set in front of a hostile crowd. Unfortunately, Mayfield lost sets three and four by two points each, ending the Cubs’ quest for their first CIF title since 2010. But it was Mayfield's best finish since 2013 and has qualified the Cubs for the California State Volleyball playoffs, which start this Tuesday. The brackets will be released on Sunday night and the Cubs will find out who their opponent will be. Their season is not quite over and next week should be very exciting.

It was a special afternoon at Occidental College yesterday as we got the chance to honor three members of our Class of 2022, Michelle Cheng ’22, Rebecca Leiva ’22 and Iris Yoo ’22. The three seniors led the Cubs tennis teams once again, this time to a 13-5 victory over Flintridge Prep on their Senior Day. Leiva was the star of the day, going 3-0 in her #1 singles matches and Cheng and Yoo also played well in their doubles matches. The seniors have led the Cubs to a stellar 13-2 record this season and will guide the team into the Prep League Championships on Wednesday before the playoffs start in a week and a half. The Cubs’ regular season is done, but we still have a chance to gain a share of the league title if Westridge beats Poly next week. No matter what happens, these seniors will have qualified for the CIF playoffs in all four of their seasons as Cubs and have led our team with grace, skill, joy and determination.

 

Some periods of time are quiet on the athletics front and there just isn’t as much to report from the sidelines. But today is not that day! It’s basically unheard of that winning a league championship might be considered a team's second-biggest achievement of the week. But that describes our volleyball season right now. On Tuesday night, the Cubs traveled to La Canada and defeated Flintridge Prep in straight sets to finish 11-1 in the Prep League and win their first league championship since 2018.

 

As the calendar turns to October, the games get much more important for the Cubs. October is the month that league champions are crowned and the CIF playoffs get underway. The Cubs have had another successful week as the final push of the Fall season begins. Varsity volleyball has moved up to #4 in the latest CIF rankings. The Cubs swept Rio Hondo Prep on all three levels on Tuesday and, starting today, the Varsity team is in Phoenix to compete in the Nike Tournament of Champions against some of the best competition in the country. The Cubs open play this morning against a California top-10 team in Vista Murrieta. I’ll be posting live updates on Twitter all weekend @msscubs.

We are about halfway done with the Fall Sports season and at this point, still no one has beaten our Varsity tennis team! The Cubs won their biggest and most thrilling match of the year yesterday over two-time defending league champion Westridge. Samantha Frick ‘23—our Athlete of the Week—continued her dominance in singles play, winning all three of her matches and she was joined by Sheryl Cheng ‘23, who went 3-0 as well. The biggest win of the day came from Cubs #3 singles Rebecca Leiva ‘22, who trailed 1-3 in her match against Westridge's #1 player. Rebecca stormed back to win the match 6-4, giving the Cubs a huge lift and when Michelle Cheng ‘22 and Anna Kingston ‘24 won their doubles match 6-4, the Cubs clinched the victory 10-8, over the Tigers. Mayfield is now 8-0 overall and 1-0 in league play. There is still a lot of tennis to be played, but the #10 ranked Cubs are clearly the team to beat in the league this season.

 

 

The Cubs continued playing well with all four sports in action this past week and one team continuing its best start ever. The Varsity tennis team looks to have a terrific blend of experience and ability as the team improved to 6-0 on the season with two more wins this week over Immaculate Heart (13-5) and Marshall (16-2). The Cubs have another non-league match on Tuesday at Buckley before opening Prep League play against the defending league champion Westridge Tigers. Coach Silvana Stans has the Cubs playing great tennis early in the season and with Samantha Frick ’23, Sheryl Cheng ’23 and Rebecca Leiva ’22 leading the way, the Cubs have been unbeatable up to this point.

 

When I walked off the pool deck at Buckley High School on March 11, 2020, all I was thinking was that it was nice to get our first league win of the swim season, and how the next few weeks were going to get much busier with badminton matches, softball games, and track & field meets crammed together before we went to Spring Break. Two days later the world changed for all of us, and that turned out to be the last Mayfield athletic competition to be held... until this week!