MENLO SCHOOL Since 1915
About the Team
The Knights were a step away from returning to the state championship and laid it all on the line in a NorCal matchup for the ages. Playing to an edge-of-your-seat finish, the Menlo girls dropped a heartbreaking 4-3 decision to Los Altos. Still, the team delivered a gritty performance, including WBAL Player of the Year Elise Chen’s upset win over the Eagles’ top seed. Menlo finished the season with a 9-1 mark, claiming its 37th league championship in program history under new coach Francis Sargeant.
Writing its own chapter in Menlo School history, the 2023 team advanced to the first-ever state championship before falling to Mater Dei in a close match. The NorCal and Central Coast Section champion Knights finished the season 25-7 despite its youth. It also marked the final match with the girls’ team for Bill Shine, who coached the boys’ team in spring, and retired after 28 seasons.
Menlo won back-to-back CCS and CIF-Northern California championships in 2014 and 2015, then picked up a NorCal title in 2019 and 2023. The Knights claim 100 CCS titles and won four Northern California titles in a row from 1998-2001. Menlo holds the CCS record for consecutive wins 92 straight from 1996-2000.
The Coach
Francis Sargeant (Second Season)
Former Stanford and Cal assistant coach Francis Sargeant serves as Director of Tennis, overseeing the entire Upper and Middle School programs, and is Varsity Head Coach of the girls’ and boys’ tennis teams.
Just prior to coming to Menlo, Sargeant wrapped up his fourth season as men’s assistant coach for Cal, which went from No. 51 to No. 20 national ranking in 2023. He coached the team to the Round of 32 of the NCAA Championships and last season, to the Pac-12 quarterfinals .
Before Cal, Sargeant spent the previous several seasons coaching at Stanford. He was a volunteer assistant for the Stanford men’s team in 2020-21 when he helped lead the Cardinal to the second round of the NCAA tournament and a No. 2 national ranking. The season before, he served as an assistant coach for the Stanford women, which reached a No. 1 ranking. He was a volunteer assistant coach for the Cardinal men for the prior three years.
Sargeant, a native of England who was an all-conference selection and captain at BYU, first learned about Menlo tennis through a former college teammate who played for the Knights. “If his skill, attitude, and effort were any indication of Menlo’s overall greatness (which I’m sure they were), I cannot wait to hit the court with the Knights,” Sargeant said about his teammate.
