Photograph by Tsutoma Fujita

Los Gatos' Robert Haushalter goes up for the kill in last week's volleyball win over Fremont. The Wildcats opened the season with wins over Fremont and Mountain View.

Enright, Mullins win for Cats

Volleyball team opens with wins

By Dick Sparrer

The league season didn't start out in impressive fashion for the Los Gatos girls softball team.

Oh, the Wildcats were doing OK overall. They finished second in the Charlie Miguel Tournament, and they won seven of their first 11 games.

Still, the Cats were off to a rather sluggish start in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League with losses in their first three games.

But after falling to St. Francis, Milpitas and Los Altos, the Wildcats started to rally. Los Gatos came back last week to edge Wilcox 4-3 and pound Mountain View 9-3.

Junior Kimi Enright and freshman Melissa Mullins tossed the Cats to back-to-back wins last week, helping Gatos improve to 2-3 in league play and to 9-4 for the year.

Enright ran her pitching record to 6-4 in the 4-3 win over the Chargers to open play last week.

Wilcox outhit Gatos 5-4, but a three-run rally in the third helped the Wildcats nail the win.

The Chargers took an early lead with a run in the first, but the Cats picked up three in the third and one more in the fourth. Wilcox added single runs in the fifth and sixth but came up a run short.

Senior Lauren Hertan had two hits to lead Gatos offensively in the win.

Mullins improved her record to 3-0 in the young season when she tossed the Wildcats to the 9-3 win over the Spartans. The young hurler also helped her cause at the plate with a pair of doubles.

Junior Kimberly Pugh led the 10-hit attack for Los Gatos with three singles, and sophomore Katie Ferrera slapped a triple.

Mountain View scored two runs in the first to take the early lead, but Los Gatos tied it with two in the fourth, then broke the game open with a six-run rally in the fifth.

First-year head coach Marlo Ann Cortese will try to keep her club on the winning track with three games this week. The Cats were to host Monta Vista on Monday and will travel to Santa Clara on April 4, 7 p.m. Los Gatos will wrap up the week by hosting Santa Cruz in a nonleague game on April 5, 4 p.m.

Wildcats split

Matt Swanson and Matt Cooke combined to toss a three-hitter to lead the Los Gatos baseball team to a 4-2 win over Saratoga last week.

But the Wildcats were stuck with a split on the week when they lost a tough 5-3 decision to first-place Wilcox to slip to 2-6 in the De Anza Division and to 5-9 for the year.

Swanson, who had been pitching in hard-luck of late, mowed down the Falcons on his way to the mound win on Tuesday. The 6-foot-7 right hander pushed his record to 2-3 with the win and Cooke came on in relief to claim his second save of the year.

Alex Anderson singled and doubled to lead a five-hit attack for the Cats in the win, and Joey Warren had two hits. Anderson knocked in two runs for the Wildcats.

Gatos took the lead with two runs in the second, then added two more in the third to go up 4-0. Saratoga got two back in the home half of the fourth, but that was all the Falcons would get off of Swanson and Cooke.

A comeback bid came up short for the Wildcats a couple of days later against Wilcox.

The Chargers opened up a big lead with single runs in the first and second and three runs in the fourth. But the Cats picked up a run in the bottom of the fourth and two more in the fifth to cut the lead to 5-3. That's as close as they would get, though, as Wilcox held on for the win. The Chargers are 8-0 in the division and 12-1 for the year.

Steve Sweeney doubled in the game for the Wildcats and Brandon Burke was stuck with a tough pitching loss.

The Wildcats will try to get back on the winning track this week when they play three games. Gatos was to face Milpitas on Monday and will visit Cupertino on April 4, 3:30 p.m., and host Monta Vista on April 6, 3:30 p.m.

Cats are 2-0

The Los Gatos boys volleyball team opened the year with a couple of wins last week.

The Wildcats pounded Mountain View 15-7, 15-11, 15-8 to open the season, then whipped Fremont 15-11, 15-10, 15-5.

Robert Haushalter pounded down seven kills in the win over the Spartans, then drilled 16 more in the win over the Firebirds.

The Cats, now 2-0 in the De Anza Division, will visit powerful Homestead on April 5, 7 p.m., after facing a Tuesday bye.

Swimmers fall

Sophomore Catherine Eastman won two events and helped a Los Gatos relay team to a victory, but the Gatos girls lost a 126-56 swimming decision to powerful St. Francis in De Anza Division competition last week.

Eastman took the 100-meter butterfly in 1:04.40 and she came back with a win in the 500 freestyle in 5:14.52. Eastman later teamed with Rebecca Stein, Gabby H'dez and Marian Roan for a first in the 200 free relay in 1:48.29.

The loss evened the Cats' season record at 2-2. Both the boys and the girls teams will be back in action this week when they travel to Monta Vista on April 6, 3 p.m.

Tough golf losses

The Los Gatos golf team suffered two tough losses last week, falling 193-196 to Saratoga and 212-213 to Monta Vista in De Anza Division play.

Junior Trevor Branon carded a one-over par 35 at the LaRinconada Country Club, but the Wildcats lost by three strokes to the Falcons.

Branon came back with a three-over 39 at the Lake Merced Country Club, but Gatos lost by a stroke to the Matadors.

Saratoga is now 6-0 in the division with Monta Vista 5-1 and Los Gatos 4-2.

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