ZAC ZINGER

SCHOOL: Quaker Valley.

WHO IS HE? Goaltender for the Quakers' hockey team, which has a 12-0-1 league record and is No. 1 in the Post-Gazette's PIHL Class A rankings. Quaker Valley is first in the South Division of the Southwest Conference.

SEASON: A senior, Zinger has a 0.95 goals-against average, second best in the Pennsylvania Interscholastic Hockey League regardless of classification. His .953 saves percentage is first.

CAREER: Zinger (6 feet 2 and 169 pounds) is in his fourth varsity season, third in a row as the starter.

MAGIC MOMENT: One of the highlights of Zinger's high school career occurred in a tournament last month, when he was in goal as the Quakers defeated Class AAA No. 1 Bethel Park in a shootout.

MUSIC MAN: Many top scholastic hockey players in Western Pennsylvania miss some varsity games because they also play for elite travel teams, which face high-level competition. Zinger only has been on Quaker Valley's squad during the past four years.

One reason is that he plays the saxophone. Zinger has been trained in jazz and improvisational sax and is in Quaker Valley's marching band. When he's in goal, Zinger draws on his appreciation of music. "I always have this song in my head -- it's sort of a contemporary thing called 'Eternity' by Nobuo Uematsu," Zinger said. "It always gets me pumped up."

FUTURE: Zinger, who has a 4.23 grade-point average, hopes to pursue a degree in music composition and be accepted at Berklee College of Music in Boston, where high-scoring teammate and guitarist Breton McNamara may go. "By coincidence, they have a hockey team," Zinger said.

-- By Rick Shrum

SARAH DUNLEAVY

SCHOOL: Bethel Park.

WHO IS SHE? A junior and one of the top swimmers in Western Pennsylvania.

THE BEST OF TIMES: Dunleavy has the top time in the WPIAL in the 200-yard individual medley (2 minutes, 9 seconds) and the 100 backstroke (59.32). She also is part of Bethel Park's 400 freestyle relay team that recently set a pool record with a time of 3:34.12, five seconds faster than the second-best time in the WPIAL this season.

CAREER: Dunleavy is a two-time WPIAL Class AAA champion in the 200 individual medley. She also finished second in the 100 breaststroke as a freshman and sophomore.

TEAM PLAYER: Winning gold medals for individual events is nice, but Dunleavy is more concerned with relays. "Relays are the events I really like to win because you're sharing it with three other people," Dunleavy said. "Winning a relay is a more memorable experience because you're up there [on the winners stand] with three teammates."

THE WRITE STUFF: Dunleavy used to be the sports editor of the Bethel Park school newspaper, but took this year off because of time constraints. In college, she wants to major in journalism and wouldn't mind being a sports writer someday. Her two older brothers were football players at Bethel Park. Mike played at Yale; Matt plays at Amherst.

-- By Mike White