Bay Area High School Sports thumbnail.(Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
Welcome to the Bay Area News Group (Mercury News & East Bay Times) girls Athlete of the Week poll.
For the entire academic year, we will provide a list of candidates who stood out over the previous week and allow you, the reader, to vote for the winner.
This week, we consider performances from Feb. 23-28.
Polls close at 5 p.m. Wednesday.
Vote as many times as you’d like until then without using bots or any other artificial methods of voting.
Votes by email and after 5 p.m. Wednesday are not counted.
Scroll to the bottom for the poll.
Winners are announced each Friday online and in the print edition of the Mercury News and East Bay Times sports sections.
Candidates for future Athlete of the Week polls can be nominated at highschools@bayareanewsgroup.com.
We accept nominations until 11 a.m. each Monday.
We also review stats submitted to MaxPreps by coaches/team statisticians.
If you haven’t already, please subscribe. Your contributions keep us going.
On to the nominees:
Anaya Bannarbie, Valley Christian basketball: The senior helped lead Valley Christian to the CCS Division II championship on Saturday against Aragon, going 9 of 9 from the field and scoring 18 points while grabbing 10 rebounds.
Cora Bryant, Los Gatos soccer: The Hawaii-bound senior made multiple key saves in regulation and extra time to ensure a clean sheet and stopped a key penalty shot in overtime to lead Los Gatos to a 0-0 (4-3 penalty kicks) win over St. Francis in penalty kicks at the CCS Division I championship.
Haru Duus, Fremont-Sunnyvale wrestling: Duus finished as the state runner-up in the 145-pound bracket at the CIF state championships in Bakersfield.
Miley Gradney, Alameda softball: Gradney went 3 for 4 as Alameda’s leadoff hitter with a home run, double, single and three RBIs in the Hornets’ 5-0 season-opening win against Monte Vista.
Kelly Ho, Mills basketball: Ho led Mills with 17 points to lead the Vikings to the CCS Division III championship with a 35-30 win over Santa Cruz in the title game.
Chloe Keating, Bishop O’Dowd soccer: The senior scored two goals, including the golden goal in overtime, as O’Dowd beat Carondelet 3-2 to win the inaugural NCS Open Division championship match.
Ezra Palec, Salesian basketball: The freshman point guard led Salesian with 19 points as the Pride beat Justin-Siena 62-52 to win the NCS Division II championship.
Bianca Putanec, Menlo School soccer: The senior recorded a clean sheet with three saves as Menlo held off Crystal 1-0 to win its second consecutive CCS Division IV championship.
Julia Simon, Presentation softball: The senior went 4 for 5 with a home run, double and two singles as Presentation beat Silver Creek 15-8.
Kelsie Skaggs, Liberty softball: The senior had seven RBIs across two big wins as Liberty got its season started. She hit two home runs and a double as the Lions beat Monte Vista 19-0 and East Union 10-4.
Luisa Tava, Menlo-Atherton basketball: The senior scored 22 points in M-A’s semifinal win over Los Altos, then added 15 in the CCS Division I championship game against Los Gatos as the Bears won the section title 49-32.
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Originally published at Christian Babcock