Hillsdale has its hands full

With Saturday’s 3-0 win over No. 5 Westmont, fourth-seeded Hillsdale became just the fifth team from the Peninsula Athletic League to qualify for a spot in the Open/Division I bracket since its inception 10 years ago.

The Knights also joined Burlingame, Carlmont and Menlo-Atherton in winning a first-round game in the section’s toughest bracket.

And the biggest test of the season awaits Hillsdale as the Knights will have to make the long drive to Salinas to take on top-seeded Everett Alvarez at 7 p.m. Tuesday.

It’s either going to be a raucous ride home or it’s going to be the longest two-hour bus ride of their lives.

The Eagles have become a CCS giant the last couple of years. They burst on the scene two years ago, capturing the 2024 Division III title, needing those three wins to finish above .500 for the season.

Last year, however, Alvarez was at full throttle. The Eagles were unbeaten on their way to the CCS Division I championship and the CIF Northern California Division I title, as well. They allowed 21 goals in compiling a 21-0-2 record.

This year, the Eagles have been even more dominant as they are a perfect 22-0-0 this season after opening CCS play with a 3-0 win over No. 8 St. Francis. The Eagles have scored an astounding 81 goals this season, while conceding just eight. They are currently riding a four-game shutout streak and have 14 clean sheets on the season.

MaxPreps.com has Alvarez ranked No. 36 in the nation, No. 6 in the state and No. 1 in the CCS.

But the Knights have some serious bona fides of their own. Since that winless Bay Division campaign three years ago, Hillsdale has lost only two games in league play. In 2024, the Knights went 7-2-1 in finishing second in the Ocean Division standings. But they won their last three Ocean Division games of the season and have ridden that to 22 straight wins in division play the last two seasons. Hillsdale went 9-0-1 in winning the Ocean Division title n 2025. This season, the Knights moved up to the Bay this season and went unbeaten again, going 10-0-4. Like Alvarez, Hillsdale is a defending CCS champion, winning the Division II bracket in 2025 and the Knights also advanced to the Nor Cal title game, falling to Archie Williams in Division III.

The Knights go into Tuesday night’s game on a 20-game unbeaten streak, their only loss being a 2-0 decision in the season opener against a Monte Vista-Danville team that is playing for the North Coast Section Open Division title Saturday.

Hillsdale is ranked in the top 100 in the state by MaxPreps.com, coming in at No. 95. The Knights are top 10 in the section with a No. 9 rank.

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Is the Sequoia boys’ basketball team going to go on a magical run like the school’s volleyball team did this past fall?

The eighth-seeded Ravens will get their chance, but it will be a tough task as they’ll take on 23-1 and top-seeded Milpitas in a second a CCS Division II second-round Tuesday night in the South Bay.

The Sequoia volleyball team finished fifth in the Bay Division before winning two matches and advancing to the CCS Division I semifinals, which qualified the Ravens for the Nor Cal tournament.

Not only did Sequoia have its name called, the Ravens were seeded No. 1 in Division III and rode that momentum all the way to their first state championship game appearance, falling in straight sets to Academy of Our Lady of Peace.

The Sequoia boys’ basketball team still has a ways to go to reach those lofty heights, but the fact the Ravens not only qualified for the CCS Division II bracket, but won their second-round game over No. 9 Watsonville, 46-38, Saturday to set up the battle with top-seeded Milpitas, is a win in and of itself.

The team could have easily cratered on the heels of a mid-season coaching change. Sequoia was 6-6 in non-league play, which qualified the Ravens for postseason season, when former head coach Fine Lauese stepped down just before the start of PAL Bay Division play.

Interim coaches led the Ravens to a 1-1 record through the first two games of Bay Division play before Olatunji Dean took over. And he and the Ravens stabilized what could have been a sinking ship. Dean would guide the Ravens to 4-6 record over the rest of the Bay Division campaign, winning three of their final four coming down the stretch to finish 5-7 in league play.

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Bryan Thomasson, already a member of three halls of fame, is adding another hall of fame election to his resume as he was recently named to the California Community College Men’s Basketball Coaches Association.

One of the best basketball players to come out of the Peninsula in the last 50 years, the Daly City native is already a member of Daly City Hall of Fame after leading Jefferson to the 1988 Central Coast Section Division III title and the CIF Division III state championship. He was named to the Skyline College Athletic Hall of Fame after setting the school scoring record and earning state player of the year honors his sophomore year, averaging 27 points per game and being named state player of the year. After a standout career at University of Nevada, Thomasson was named to the Peninsula Sports Hall of Fame.

He got involved in the San Francisco Summer Pro-Am basketball tournament, first while playing at Skyline. He continued as a player through the rest of his career before transitioning into a coach role with the summer basketball series and has been a longtime youth coach with the now-San Francisco Soldiers program.

Nathan Mollat has been covering high school sports in San Mateo County for the San Mateo Daily Journal since 2001. He can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.