Half Moon Bay basketball player Xochitl Nieves is the Bay Area News Group’s girls high school athlete of the week and Acalanes lacrosse player Luke Dafferner is the boys athlete of the week for March 3-8.

In the girls poll, Nieves finished with 37.20% of the vote. Piedmont basketball player Janelle Solis took second at 21.74% and California School for the Deaf softball player Timaree Serrano was third at 15.45%.

In the boys poll, Dafferner had 40.78% of the vote to finish first. Mountain View soccer player Aidan Wong was second at 31.07% and Priory basketball player Kasten Eggers took third at 19.49%.

Nieves, a junior guard, scored 15 points in a NorCal Division IV semifinal victory over Rio Linda, sending the Cougars to their first regional final in program history. HMB won that game, too, to advance the D-IV state final on Saturday.

Dafferner, a sophomore, scored five goals to lead Acalanes to a 10-6 win over Bishop O’Dowd in a lacrosse match.

To nominate an athlete for next week’s poll, email highschools@bayareanewsgroup.com by Monday at 11 a.m. Please include stats and team results.

Votes by email do not count. Only votes submitted through the online poll on the Mercury News and East Bay Times websites will count.

Winners are announced each Friday on the Mercury News and East Bay Times websites and in the print edition of the Mercury News and EB Times sports sections.