Sports briefs: Branson’s Pederson advances to tennis semifnals

Branson’s Brooke Pederson, the top-seeded player in this week’s MCAL girls tennis tournament, cruised into the semifinals without dropping a set on Monday.

All four seeded players advanced in straight sets, with No. 2 Anna Lardner of Branson, No. 3 En-Ya Zhang of Terra Linda and No. 4 Hannah Lam-Truong of San Marin joining Pederson in the semifinals. Pederson faces Lam-Truong at 2 p.m. on Tuesday at College of Marin while Zhang faces Lardner, setting up the possibility of an all-Branson title match on Thursday.

The top two seeds in doubles also moved on as the No.1 duo of Tam’s Jamilah Karah and Katie Bulger moved on to face Lillie Lippman and Kate Lardner of Branson. The second seeds, Marin Catholic’s Katie Miller and Charlotte Hackman, are set to face Redwood’s Zoe Babikian and Vanessa Comins on Tuesday.

National champ

Marin’s Elmo Shropshire, known better for the song “Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer,” was crowned the national champion in his age group (80-84) at the 2019 USATF Masters 5 km Championships in San Diego last month. Shropshire completed the course in 29 minutes, 44 seconds.