Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by George Sakkestad

Los Gatos girls' water polo player Alix Eastman reaches back to let a shot fly in last week's battle with Menlo-Atherton. The Cats ended up losing 11-7.

Gatos girls fall to M-A

Boys nail polo win over Vikes

By Dick Sparrer

Rachel Stratton figured to be the leading scorer for the Los Gatos girls' water polo team this season. After all, she was the team's top scorer a year ago, and everything pointed to her repeating that feat in her senior year.

She has.

And she was the Gatos scoring leader last week when the Wildcats hosted Menlo-Atherton in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League at the San Jose City College pool.

But even Stratton's high-scoring ways weren't enough to keep the Cats from dropping a 10-7 decision to M-A to slip to 1-4 in league play and 7-10 for the year.

Stratton led the Wildcats with three goals, and Lindsay Norcott added two in the loss to Menlo-Atherton. Lisa Cristol and Alix Eastman also scored goals for the Cats.

Gatos coach Tim Outtrim singled out starters Lynsie Tanguay and Carol Humphrey for solid performances in the game, and he added that sophomore goalie Emily Jeffers turned in another solid effort.

"She had another great game," Outtrim said of Jeffers. "She blocked a four-meter shot."

Los Gatos stayed right with M-A through three periods. The clubs were tied 1-1 after a quarter and Gatos trailed just 4-3 at the half. The Cats tied it 5-5 after three periods but were outscored 5-2 in the fourth to lose by three.

The loss ended the regular season for the Wildcats. They will now advance to the league tournament. As the sixth-place team, Los Gatos must place first place Palo Alto in a first-round game.

The Los Gatos boys, meanwhile, wrapped up the De Anza Division regular season with an 11-5 win over Lynbrook.

Trevor Bannon tossed in four goals to lead all Gatos scorers in the win. Mike Berwald, Taylor Henricks and Nic Van Biene supported with two goals each, and Grant Wernick added one.

The Cats actually trailed 4-3 after a period, but they came back to blank the Vikings 2-0 in the second quarter and 4-0 in the third to take command of the game.

Los Gatos improved to 3-3 in their division with the win.

The Cats slipped to 10-15 for the year when they lost two straight in the Wildcat Wrapup tournament they hosted at West Valley Community College last weekend.

The Cats lost 9-4 to powerful Los Altos and dropped a 12-6 decision to Bellarmine a day later, despite getting a couple of goals from Lawryk and one each from Berwald, Van Biene, Bannon and Phillip Roan.

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