Sports Briefs: Lopez lifts San Rafael girls to MCAL soccer semis

Yasmin Lopez scored the winning goal in the 53rd minute on Tuesday evening as fourth-seeded San Rafael High (12-1-9, 2-1-5 MCAL) shut out No. 5 Archie Williams High, 1-0, to advance to Thursday’s MCAL girls soccer semifinals. The Bulldogs will face No. seed Redwood on Thursday.

In the other semifinal, Tam High sealed the win on penalty kicks after battling to a 1-1 draw with Marin Catholic through double overtime. No. 6 seed Tam (5-11-5, 3-41) will face top-seeded Branson in Thursday’s semifinal.

• Marin Academy shut down Head Royce, 3-0, on Tuesday as the Wildcats (13-2-2, 7-0-2 BCL) strengthened their position atop the league standings.

Men’s basketball

Darius Best scored a team-high 22 points to power Dominican University to a 104-91 home victory over Azusa Pacific on Monday night.

The Penguins (14-8, 9-7 PacWest) had five players score in double figures with Nick Medeiros adding 20 points, as well as big nights from Michael Wilson (17), Austin Johnson (14) and Stephen Ransom (11). Dominican rallied from a double-digit deficit in the first half. The Penguins are scheduled to host Biola on Thursday.

Women’s basketball

Dominican University survived a seesaw battle Monday evening for a 69-60 victory over Azusa Pacific.

Mahliya Wilson led the Penguins (17-5, 11-5 PacWest) with 18 points to go with seven rebounds. The bench also came up big for Dominican with Janiya Sawyer finishing with 16 points and Isobel Crosswhite adding 11 points.

Running

The Tamalpa Couples Relay is returning on Valentine’s Day, Feb. 14, at 9 a.m. Held 40 consecutive years (save one) from 1980, the race was paused during the pandemic and is now finally coming back.

The Couples Relay was originally organized by The Good Sport running store in then new Larkspur Landing (now Marin Country Mart). In the race’s unique format, women ran two miles then tagged off to their male partners. Some of the region’s most prominent runners won, including all-time fastest Dipsea Race performers Ron Elijah and Peggy Smyth, Marin County Athletic League 2-mile record holders Rod Berry and Robyn MacSwain (now married), and New Zealand Olympian Heather Thomson.

Later, Tamalpa Runners took over the race. The venue shifted to Novato’s Vintage Oaks shopping center, migrated back to Larkspur (including a couple of years running through the new SMART train tunnel) and is now back at Vintage Oaks. The 2026 course is a flat out-and-back on the traffic-free path bordering the SMART tracks on the east edge of the shopping center.

There are multiple categories; open, two females, two males, married, parent/grandparent with child/grandchild, youth, high school, and middle school. Prizes are based on combined ages, and most teams end up going home with an award. To learn more and register, visit http://www.tamalparunners.org/couplesrelays.

Reporting scores

Coaches are encouraged to report scores, stats and game details via email to sports@marinij.com or to @marinij_sports on Twitter following games. Anything that comes in after the deadline for print – around 8 p.m. typically – will be included the following day.