Hindle-Katel Returns, Scores Big

All-American Will Hindle-Katel has returned from a knee injury in time to leave his mark on the Southern Section boys’ water polo playoffs for North Hollywood Harvard-Westlake (26-4), seeded fourth in Division I.

Hindle-Katel, a two-meter player who has spent most of his senior season on the sidelines -- he will enroll at Stanford next fall -- scored six goals and assisted on two more in a 19-4 victory over Rancho Santa Margarita Tesoro in a first-round game last week.

The Wolverines, behind four goals and an assist by Eric Vreeland, beat visiting Newport Harbor, 8-6, on Tuesday to advance to the semifinals Friday, when they will meet top-seeded Long Beach Wilson at 7 p.m. at William Woollett Jr. Aquatics Center in Irvine.

Harvard-Westlake has not won a section title since 1991, while Wilson has won eight of the last 10 and three in a row, including victories over the Wolverines in two of the last three title games. Harvard-Westlake beat Wilson, 10-9, last month at home.

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The Woollett Aquatics Center will be busy Friday, when it will play host to the other Division I semifinal game, between second-seeded Corona del Mar and third-seeded Santa Ana Foothill at 5:30 p.m., and the Division II semifinals games. Top-seeded Villa Park plays fourth-seeded Anaheim Esperanza at 5 p.m., and second-seeded Los Alamitos and third-seeded Anaheim Servite will play at 6:30.

Softball

Brittany Weil, a pitcher at Garden Grove Pacifica and a Times’ All-Star, has signed with Iowa.

Weil, daughter of Pacifica Coach Rob Weil, led the Mariners to their second consecutive Southern Section Division III title last season with a 26-2 record and an 0.16 earned-run average. She struck out 265 in 175 innings.