Rivals highlight semifinals of CCS

One side of the girls’ Division II bracket features one of the fiercest rivalries on the Peninsula when No. 3 Aragon (13-11) makes the well-known drive down Alameda de las Pulgas to take on second-seeded Hillsdale (18-7) for a 7 p.m. showdown.

If you’re a fan of either team, you better get there early. If there was ever a game that the schools might think about moving to a bigger venue, this would be it. The Dons hold a 23-19 edge in the series since 2005. The teams split the 2026 season series, with Hillsdale pulling out a 56-53 win Jan. 9 and the Dons’ returning the favor with a 56-44 victory Jan. 30.

This will be the second time in five years that these longtime rivals face off in a crucial CCS game. The last time was in the 2022 CCS Division II championship game, in front of a packed house at Hillsdale (the world was still recovering from COVID at that time and title games were being played at the home of the higher seed, instead of the usual neutral site).

The atmosphere was electric that night, with the second-seeded Aragon holding on for a 52-47 win over the top-seeded Knights.

No player on either team was on those 2022 squads, so they’ll get a chance to make their own ‘Flea Game” history.

The other interesting matchup comes in the girls’ Division IV bracket. While not rival schools, both fourth-seeded Menlo School (16-9) and top-seeded Notre Dame-Belmont (18-4) play in the same West Bay Athletic League Foothill Division and have battled each other for DIV supremacy over the years.

This semifinal game at 7 p.m. in Belmont is the classic case of, “If you want to be the champ, you have to beat the champ.” NDB beat Menlo twice during the regular season in 2026 but, over the last four years, no one has beaten the Knights in CCS play. Menlo is the four-time defending Division IV champion and hasn’t lost a CCS game since a first-round defeat in the 2021 Open Division bracket.

NDB will be looking for its first finals appearance since 2021 — when the Tigers lost to Menlo to start the Knights’ title run.

On the boys’ side, a pair of Division IV stalwarts will give the county a third team in Saturday’s finals, when No. 3 Menlo School (14-11) goes over the hill to face off against No. 2 Half Moon Bay (15-10) at 7 p.m. The Cougars are appearing in their second straight DIV semifinal and third in four years. The Knights are in the semifinals for the first time since appearing in the 2024 finals.

***

They don’t get much attention, but the Priory boys’ and girls’ basketball teams have quietly built CCS powers in the small enclave of Portola Valley.

Yes, the Panthers are a private school. Yes, that gives them an advantage, but it simply put them on par with the rest of private schools, religious or otherwise, that tend to dominate the CCS basketball landscape.

Girls’ head coach, Buck Matthews, has the Lady Panthers in the Open Division for the third year in a row with their highest seed ever — No. 2, just behind top-seeded Mitty.

Priory took on No. 3 Riordan in the final round of pool play Wednesday night, with the winner advancing to the Open Division title game Friday night.

Whether the Panthers get to the championship game or not, they’ve already established themselves as one of the best teams in the section. The Lady Panthers won five Division V titles over a six-year span — winning four in row from 2017 to 2020 and adding another in 2022. The Panthers also made the finals in 2016 and 2023.

The Priory boys, led by David Moseley, are the defending CCS DV and CIF state DIV state champs. They have won five CCS Division V crowns over the last 10 years. The second-seeded Panthers host No. 3 Oakwood at 7 p.m. in a Thursday night semifinal game. A Priory win would send the Panthers to the finals for the third time in four years.

***

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I’m not ready for this yet.

One of the first things I do in the morning is check my work email and the MaxPreps.com app to find results for games that happened the day before.

So imagine my surprise when I saw the first emailed baseball box score of the high school season — right in the middle of the winter playoffs.

I had to go to the Central Coast Section website to make sure that Sequoia’s 14-2 win over Mountain View and Jefferson’s blowout loss to Castro Valley were games that counted in the standings and not some kind of scrimmage.

Nope. Monday was the first day that springs sports could officially begin play. Additionally, Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division tennis kicked off Tuesday.

Hard to believe that there are only roughly three months left in the athletic season.

So coaches of spring sports, here is the call for you to send in your non-league sports results. The PAL, specifically, only compiles results for PAL games, not non-league games. So if you want your kids to be part of the Daily Journal roundup, you need to, at the very least, load your box score stats to MaxPreps.com. That’s the easiest way. Or you can email results to sports@smdailyjournal.com

We’ll try to sprinkle some spring sports stories into our CCS/Nor Cal basketball and soccer coverage over the next couple of weeks.

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.