Benet Academy girls soccer celebrated Senior Night in style with a 5-0 shutout over Montini — but it was freshman, Ashley Polanco, who delivered our Girls Play of the Week! This play is presented by Trunnell Insurance.

Ashley Polanco scores from 30 yards out for Benet Academy Soccer

Audrey Eiseman attacks the Bronco defense and dishes it off to freshman Ashley Polanco, who weaves through multiple defenders and fires a leaning cross-body shot into the back of the net! It gives the Redwings a 2-0 lead — and this one’s worth slowing down for another look!

Benet would go on to clinch the ESCC title with the 5-0 victory.

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The Simi Valley High baseball team has been impatiently awaiting the CIF-Southern Section playoffs.As hot the Pioneers were to end the regular season, when they won the final 14 games to come from behind and edge rival Royal in an unforgettable Coastal Canyon League race, rest was the last thing on their mind this week.“I wish we didn’t have such a big layoff,” Simi Valley coach Scott Vermette said.Simi Valley was the second seed and Marmonte League co-champion Oaks Christian was the third seed in the Division 2 baseball field, which included five local teams, when CIF-SS announced its postseason pairings on Monday, May 12.“We feel like we can deal with anybody,” Vermette said before the pairings were announced. “We’re feeling really good going into this thing, obviously with a 14-game winning streak.Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

“But you know it’s just a start for us. We’re not looking just to go to the first round of the playoffs. We’re looking to continue our winning streak and you know just play good baseball.”

Simi Valley enters the postseason with a pair of junior aces in Kyle Casey (8-0, 1.02 ERA) and Jackson Goshorn (8-2, 1.49).

The Pioneers have been led offensively by Evan Rodriguez, who is hitting .432 with 10 doubles and a triple. The sophomore delivered the walk-off hit in the 3-2, title-deciding win over Royal.

Simi Valley (22-5) will host Ventura (21-6-1) in an all-county first-round matchup on Friday, May 16.

The Cougars also finished the regular season hot, winning their last 10 and 15 of their last 16 to split the Channel League title with Santa Barbara.

Senior Josh Woodworth is hitting .380 with five home runs and 22 RBIs. Senior Wylan Nelson is hitting .388 with five home runs and 35 runs scored. Both are big cogs in a pitching staff that boasts a 1.33 ERA.

Pacifica was seeded fourth in Division 4. Channel Islands was the top seed in Division 7.

Thousand Oaks (15-12) and Grace (11-11-2) were the two local teams to earn at-large berth berths in Divisions 4 and 7, respectively.

The CIF-SS seeded 280 teams across nine divisions. First-round games are Thursday, May 15, for Divisions 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 and Friday, May 16, for Divisions 2, 4, 6 and 8.

Section finals are scheduled for May 30-31 at Cal State Fullerton’s Goodwin Field and Blair Field in Long Beach.

In the other three local games in Division 2, Royal (22-6) will host Sultana (21-3-1), Oaks Christian (19-8) will host Redlands East Valley (20-8), and Westlake (20-8) will visit San Clemente (18-10).

Calabasas (17-11) will host San Dimas (15-10) in Division 3.

In Division 4, Pacifica (19-9) will host California (20-8) and Thousand Oaks (15-12) will host La Quinta (16-12).

In Division 5, Citrus Coast League champion Santa Paula (14-11) will visit Liberty (11-11), Camarillo (12-16) will host Orange Vista (14-12), and Hueneme (17-8) will visit Riverside Poly (14-11).

Tri-Valley League champion St. Bonaventure (14-14) will host Pasadena (10-13-1) and Foothill Tech (14-13) will host South El Monte (19-7) in Division 6.

In Division 7, Channel Islands (12-13) will host Coachella Valley (11-8), Grace (11-11-2) will visit Vasquez (16-8), and Thacher (9-7) will visit Riverside-Notre Dame (17-9)

Fillmore’s $4.4 million Booty Sanchez Varsity Baseball Field will host the postseason in its inaugural season. The Flashes (9-17) will play San Maria-Valley Christian (9-6) in Division 8.

CIF-SS expanded its postseason to a ninth division this spring and two local teams are part of that bracket.

Beacon Hill (4-3) will visit Twentynine Palm (9-8) and Ojai Valley (10-6) will visit Animo Leadership (13-13) in the first Division 9 playoffs.

Joe Curley covers baseball for The Star. He can be reached at joe.curley@vcstar.com. For more coverage, follow @vcspreps on Twitter/X, Instagram/Threads, Facebook and Bluesky.

After a 5-0 upset loss to Eagle on Friday, the Storm responded with three consecutive wins Saturday to secure the 6A baseball regional title.

FLINT – Check out what happened around the Flint-area high school sports scene over the weekend.

Coaches and athletic directors are encouraged to email results, highlights, and comments about the results of each game for any sport to jszczepaniak@mlive.com.

Baseball

May 10

Durand 11, Montrose 4: Brody Demo and Ryan Hunt, who had three RBIs, each had three hits as Durand picked up the win against Montrose.

Noah Kauffman had two hits while Brayden Kelley (2.2) and Demo (2.1) contributed five combined innings on the mound.

Connor Gross and Conner Thompson each had two hits to lead Montrose.

Flint Powers Catholic 12, Montrose 2: Aiden Olah and Eli Sturgess had a day at the plate Saturday, leading Powers Catholic to a decisive win over Montrose.

Sturgess had a double, home run, and three RBIs while Olah had a double, triple, and RBI in the win.

Nathan Gebhardt added two hits, including a double, and Drew Simmons added a triple for the Chargers.

Flint Powers Catholic 3, Ortonville Brandon 2: Standout pitching performances from Simmons, Logan Gowan, and Santino Evely led the Chargers to a win over Ortonville Brandon.

Simmons drove in two with a double in the top of the seventh to lead Powers Catholic to a win.

Grand Blanc 1, Utica Eisenhower 0: Chris Worley went four innings with seven strikeouts while Caleb McDonald added four innings with six strikeouts to lead the Bobcats over Eisenhower in game one.

Sawyer Fullwood, who scored Grand Blanc’s only run, had a triple in the win.

Ortonville Brandon 7, Durand 0: Standout pitching performances from Kurt Briolat and Ben Misenar led the way for the Blackhawks as Durand had only two hits in the loss.

Briolat helped his cause with two hits and two RBIs while Darren Linenger had two hits and Lance Briolat had a double and an RBI in the win.

May 9

Davison 9, Fenton 8: A nine-run ninth inning from Fenton made things interesting against the Cardinals, but Davison was able to hold on for the win.

Colton Rich went 3-for-4 with three RBIs while Jaxon Ridley added two hits and an RBI for Davison. Carter Dirkse and Malaki Johnson each had a hit and an RBI in the win.

Matthew Mckinnon went six innings and struck out eight for the Cardinals while Fenton handed the ball to seven different pitchers.

Luke Dotson led Fenton with three hits, including two doubles, while Noah Sheil had two hits and two RBIs and Rory Sheil had two hits and an RBI.

New Lothrop 6, Corunna 4: Timely hitting and strong pitching from Nathan Kuchar led the Hornets to a win in game one.

Kuchar went 6 1/3 innings and struck out nine while allowing four earned runs.

Kuchar helped his own cause at the plate with two hits and two RBIs while Jameson Kopschitz had two hits and an RBI.

Paul Galesk and Christian Rivera each had two hits in the loss for Corunna.

New Lothrop 19, Corunna 7: The Hornets drew 11 walks while only collecting six hits to earn the win in game two.

Kopschitz, Kuchar, Michael Schlachter, Logan Lienau, Sean Dammann, and Reece Eustace each had a hit for New Lothrop while Dayne Zeeman had three hits and Hoyt McCorkle had two hits for the Cavaliers.

Swartz Creek 5, Owosso 2: Logan Beckwith (4.0) and Alex Miller (3.0) combined for five hits and one earned run on the mound to lead the Dragons in game one.

Wyatt Jolman, Jac Sandlin, and Nate Crawford each had two hits while Brett Hoffman added a double.

Carson Moore had a double for Owosso.

Swartz Creek 6, Owosso 1: Jac Sandlin went six innings and allowed only one run while striking out six to lead Swartz Creek in game two.

Sandlin helped his own cause with a pair of hits while Crawford had three hits and Jolman and Wistuba each had two in the win.

The Dragons tallied 13 hits in game two.

May 10 scores

Utica Eisenhower 3, Grand Blanc 2

Waterford Kettering 5, Holly 2

Waterford Kettering 12, Holly 3

May 9 scores

Auburn Hills Oakland Christian 8, Imlay City 2

Auburn Hills Oakland Christian 5, Imlay City 4

Boys Golf

May 9

Flushing 154, Goodrich 163: AJ Gasper led the field with a 35 while Garrett Morrison finished in second with a 36, leading the Raiders to a league win.

Goodrich was led by Jayce Junga (37) and Micah Mills (39).

New Lothrop 181, Byron 205: New Lothrop’s Cameron Naessens and Byron’s Braylen Brown each shot a 41 while Kevin Heslip (43) and Hunter Wolfe (45) each turned in solid scores for the Hornets.

Anthony Wren added a 46 for Byron.

Otisville LakeVille Memorial 184, Montrose 210: Montrose’s Warren Six led the field with a 39 but LakeVille Memorial’s Logan Lang (41), Brady Peterson (45), Connor Kennedy (48), and Gregor Waite (50) had the next highest scores in the matchup.

Boys Lacrosse

May 10 scores

Fenton 15, Sault Ste Marie 6

May 9 scores

Lake Orion 11, Grand Blanc 6

Lapeer 16, Clinton Township Chippewa Valley 7

Petoskey 16, Fenton 1

Note: Congratulations to Grand Blanc on winning its third-straight Saginaw Valley League title after defeating Midland Dow 13-4 on May 8.

Girls Lacrosse

May 9 scores

Flint Powers Catholic 21, Flushing 6

Hartland 15, Fenton 2

St. Johns 16, Holly 5

Girls Soccer

May 9

Clio 3, Flint Carman-Ainsworth 0: Autumn Wilkinson scored a pair of goals while Mackenzie LaFreniere added a goal to end the Mustangs’ five-game losing streak.

Clio is now 5-9 on the season.

Imlay City 5, Byron 2: Wren Dennis and Aryana Atkinson scored two goals each to lead Imlay City.

Kierstyn Stankevich added a goal and two assists in the win.

Zadie Schmidt scored both goals for Byron in the loss.

May 10 scores

Grand Blanc 2, Petoskey 1

Lake Orion 3, Grand Blanc 0

May 9 scores

Birch Run 5, Corunna 0

Fowlerville 3, Owosso 0

For years, weight rooms have been dominated by men — Girl Gains is changing the narrative to empower women’s confidence at the gym.

The club was founded in 2020 at San Diego State University and is now present on over 100 campuses across the United States, Canada and Vietnam. Their mission is to promote female weightlifting and support women in the gym.

In January 2023, former president of Girl Gains, Kayla Long, brought the club to Cal State Fullerton. For the past two years, CSUF’s Girl Gains club has hosted events, frequent gym-meetups, panel discussions with fitness coaches and created a safe learning environment for women to grow at the gym.

The current president, Mattea Chung has worked hard to grow the club on Fullerton’s campus, with attendance varying weekly. On average, they have about 15-30 active members, depending on the meeting.

Many of the women in the club formed strong connections through their shared experience of playing sports in high school. However, after starting college, they found themselves without a community to stay active with, leading them to join Girl Gains.

“It was one of the best decisions I made. Now I’m here, president of the club 2.5 years later (…) and all these people are here because I found a vision for it,” Chung said.

Haley Agbayani, a senior and biology major at CSUF, joined Girl Gains in the spring of 2024 to continue to stay active after leaving the school’s cheerleading team.

“Before Girl Gains, I was on the cheer team and I decided to part ways,” Agbayani said. “I wanted something to fill that void.”

While some women joined Girl Gains to continue their active lifestyle, some members were just getting started on their fitness journey.

No matter the fitness level, Girl Gains strives to be a safe space for women to learn and improve their weightlifting technique. Women of any background and skill level are welcome into the club. With a $25 membership, members have access to bi-weekly chapter meetings, merchandise discounts, off-campus events and their annual end-of-year banquet.

During their bi-weekly meetings, Girl Gains brought educational speakers to speak on women’s health, nutrition and other kinesiology-related topics.

CSUF’s Girl Gains chapter partners with other schools’ chapters for fitness events. Last month, they held a hiking event with USC’s Girl Gains called “Sisterhood Summit.” The club doesn’t only focus on weightlifting, they have held pilates classes, zumba classes, rock climbing, swimming and other fitness events.

Girl Gains also has bonding events like karaoke night, game night, banquet and camping trips. This semester, the event coordinator, Sarah Mazengia, planned a camping trip at Joshua Tree National Park. They spent three days on the trip.

“It was our first big overnight trip (…) It was a lot of fun, a lot of things went wrong,” Mazengia said. “But everyone survived.”

To wrap off the Girl Gains year, they hosted their second annual banquet in the Titan Student Union. Members had free food, games, awards, and a slideshow of all their photographed memories from the 24-25 school year.

Mazengia became teary-eyed as she spoke about her memories from Girl Gains, as a graduating senior.

“Banquet was really hard for me (…) I’m going to miss them a lot, because they’re all amazing, beautiful, and that is a true reflection of their soul,” Mazengia said.