A new player on the scene

“Initially it was a five-year plan. If we could build it and do well and slowly build a name for ourselves, that would be great,” said Alyssa Jepsen, who coaches the U16 team, along with former high school teammate Aly Palermo. Jepsen is also one of the club’s co-founders and college recruiting coordinator for the club. She is a former standout at Notre Dame-Belmont and College of San Mateo before ending up her college career at Santa Clara University. She recently wrapped up her first season as the San Mateo High School softball coach.

“What we’ve done in three years blows our minds,” Jepsen said. “We literally had six girls show up for our first practice (that first season).”

The U12 Warriors wrapped up its season with a tie for seventh place finish in the Premiere Girls Fastpitch (PGF) national tournament in Huntington Beach. After finally qualifying for nationals at a tournament in Portland, Oregon — essentially their last chance to qualify — the Warriors got off to a miserable start in the PGF tournament.

“We had a rough start in pool play. We got beat up pretty bad,” said Kelly McDonald, who shares the U12 coaching duties with Maia Monchek, both NDB alums. “We won our first pool-play game, we came in the next day thinking we were the baddest team there and we got the welcome-to-it (treatment). They realized the magnitude (of the tournament) when they lost 17-0 in pool play. They learned real quick they had to clean it up. And they did. They bounced back really well. We came back and run-ruled the next team.”

The Warriors lost their first tournament bracket game before ripping off six straight wins to win the losers’ bracket final.

While the ultimate goal is to prepare all their players for high school and college ball, McDonald was especially high on three players in particular who she believes could be better than most.

Pitcher Ava Conti pitched 42 innings — including five games in the tournament bracket — winning six of her seven starts.

“She was the youngest pitcher in the tournament,” McDonald said, adding Conti is only 11 years old. “She was 11 years old making these 13-year-olds look ridiculous her spins and changeup.”

Megan Grant had a big tournament at the plate, hitting over .500. Grant, along with outfielder and leadoff hitter Olivia Dinardo flew out to Tennessee to play with the U14 Warriors’ entrant.

Talia Tokheim and Shannon Kieghran were pleasant surprises for McDonald and the Warriors.

“[Tokheim] came out of rec ball last fall,” McDonald said. “People, when they decide to come to travel ball, it’s a really big jump. This is her first time playing (highly) competitive softball. … She was like the sleeper pick and got hot at nationals. Kieghran has the story line.”

The Warriors started the 2015 season with just one team, a U14 squad, but have added a team every season. Last year, the 12s team was formed and this season the club added a 16s squad. Last year, just the U14 team (this year’s U16 squad) qualified for the national tournament.

A year later, the Warriors added two more teams to its quickly growing list of accomplishments.

“All our teams qualified (for a national tournament), which is amazing,” Jepsen said. “To see where we’re at now, it’s like, holy [cow]. We’re just getting bigger. The more success we have, the more girls (will) come out.”

***

Francesca Corbett, an incoming seventh-grader at Bowditch Middle School, will have quite the summer tale to tell to her friends and classmates.

What did Corbett do this summer? The 12-year-old all but solidified her ranking as the top U13 badminton player in the Americas as she captured the girls’ singles and doubles titles at the 26th Pan Am Games in Toronto last week, going 6-0 and dropping just one set along the way.

The two golds come on the heels of three titles at the United States Badminton Association Junior National tournament in South San Francisco last month.

Corbett lived up to her lofty No. 1 seed in the 22-player, single-elimination girls’ singles tournament. After a first-round bye, Corbett won three matches in a row to win the championship, dropping only one set along the way. She faced Mexico’s Christina Perez in the second round and, after Perez gained some confidence in the first set, losing by just five points, 21-16, Corbett blitzed her in the second set, winning 21-7.

Corbett faced her stiffest competition in the quarterfinals as Peru’s Fernanda Munar Solimano, who, after dropping the first set 21-11, rebounded to win the second 21-15. Corbett, however, dug deep and advanced to the semifinals with a 21-13 win in the third set.

Another Peruvian was waiting in the semifinals and this time Corbett wasted little time in posting a straight-set, 21-7, 21-12 win over Gianna Stiglich Guzman.

Corbett took on fellow American, and No. 2 seed, Olivia Chen in the championship match and Corbett was not to be denied, winning decisively, 21-16, 21-11.

Corbett then teamed with Allison Lee for the girls’ doubles tournament, where they were the No. 2 seed behind the top-seeded Peruvian pair of Fernanda and Rafaela Munar Solimano.

Corbett and Lee ran the table, winning three matches without dropping a set.

Their big test came in the second round, after a first-round bye. They faced another Peruvian team who made the Americans work before Corbett and Lee posted a 21-17, 21-18 win.

Peru must love badminton because Corbett and Lee’s final two opponents were also from South America. It was no surprise the Americans met the top-seeded Munar Solimano pair in the finals, nor was it surprising to see the final decision: a 21-12, 21-10 win for Corbett and Lee.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: 344-5200 ext. 117.