Photograph by Tsutomu Fujita
The Los Gatos girls field hockey team opened the league season with a couple of wins last week. Tiffany Baiardo (right, above) battles for the ball in a 2-0 win over St. Francis.
Hockey team opens league with wins
Los Gatos girls roll to water polo wins
By Dick Sparrer
The league season began much the same way the non-league campaign for the girls field hockey team at Los Gatos High--with the Wildcats rolling to victories.
The Cats opened the season in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League with back-to-back wins over Saratoga and St. Francis last week.
The two wins helped Los Gatos push its record to 7-0 for the year. Gatos will be out to improve on that mark this week when they visit Lynbrook on Oct. 9 and host Mitty on Oct. 11 in a couple of 3 p.m. games. The following Tuesday, Oct. 16, the Wildcats host powerful Willow Glen in a key match-up.
Lyndsay Erickson, Ashley Ogle, Tiffany Baiardo and Jen Azlant led the scoring for the Wildcats last week when they swept past Saratoga 3-1 and blanked St. Francis 2-0.
Erickson knocked in two goals and Azlant had a goal and an assist in the win over the Falcons.
The clubs were locked in a scoreless tie at the half, but Gatos came out swinging in the second half. Ogle scored a goal off assists from Alison Reyes and Jenny Dixon, then scored again assists from Azlant and Kim Christiansen. Azlant scored her goal unassisted.
The Wildcats came charging back with a 2-0 win over the Lancers later in the week. Once more the Cats found themselves in a 0-0 tie at intermission, but Ogle broke the tie in the second half on a goal off assists from Reyes and Dixon. Baiardo added an insurance goal off an assist from Erickson later in the game.
Christiansen, Ogle, Azlant and Erickson are all senior returners from a Los Gatos squad that advanced to the Central Coast Section playoffs a year ago.
Gatos girls roll
Catherine Eastman poured in seven goals in two games to help the Los Gatos girls water polo team roll to consecutive wins over Mountain View and Lynbrook in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
Eastman buried four goals in an 11-2 win over the Spartans. Earlier in the week, Eastman and Rachel Jeffers tossed in three goals apiece to drive the Wildcats to a 9-4 win over Lynbrook.
The two wins helped the Cats improve to 6-1 in league play.
Gatos opened up a 5-1 first-half lead against Mountain View, then put the game away with four unanswered goals in the third period on the road to the 11-2 win over the Spartans last Thursday.
Eastman led the scoring with four goals, and Becca Norman and Kristen Gonzales pitched in two apiece. Jeffers, Monica Young and Brittany Shand added a goal each.
Jeffers and Eastman had drilled three goals apiece, and Gonzales, Shand and Heather McMurray hit one each in the 9-2 win over the Vikings to open the week.
Los Gatos split four games at the Amanda MacDonald Invitational last weekend, beating Pioneer 4-3 and Menlo-Atherton 7-6 but losing to Aragon 7-5 and Gunn 6-2. The split left the Cats with a 13-6 season record.
Los Gatos had opened the year by finishing third at the Marin Tournament, winning three of four games in the tourney. Juniors Eastman, Jeffers and Norman led the attack for the Wildcats along with sophomore goalkeeper Anna Hygelund.
The Cats went on to compete in the St. Francis Tournament, posting two more wins. McMurray tossed in a game-winning goal in overtime to lead the Wildcats to a thrilling win over Menlo-Atherton.
Cats lose two
The Los Gatos girls volleyball team lost twice last week in the De Anza Division of the SCVAL, losing a 13-15, 15-12, 15-8, 9-15, 15-12 five-game heartbreaker to Santa Clara and falling 15-1, 15-4, 15-5 to powerful St. Francis.
The Wildcats slipped to 1-4 in the division and to 5-6 for the year with the two losses.
Wildcats net win
Los Gatos won three of four singles matches and two of three bouts in doubles play to claim a 5-2 non-league win over Homestead last week.
But the Wildcats lost twice in the De Anza Division of the SCVAL to slip to 3-6 for the year, falling 5-2 to Palo Alto and 6-1 to St. Francis.
Alicia Hull won 7-5, 7-5 at No. 1 singles to lead the Wildcats to the win over the Mustangs. Katrina Lebedeva supported with a 7-5, 6-1 win at No. 2 singles and Cristi Green won 6-1, 6-3 at No. 4.
Lebedeva won 7-5, 7-6 (7-4) at No. 2 and Green won 6-0, 6-1 at No. 4 in the 5-2 loss to Palo Alto, and Green was the lone winner against the Lancers with a 6-2, 6-3 victory at No. 4 singles.
Los Gatos, California Since 1881
