Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Saratoga's Dave Schneider tossed the Falcons to a regular season-ending 4-3 win over Los Altos.

Falcons fall at CCS

But only after netting a win against Gunderson

By Dick Sparrer

Saratoga entered the Central Coast Section boys' tennis tournament seeded No. 8 as a team.

Menlo was seeded No. 1.

Saratoga lived up to its seeding in the first round of the tournament, beating unseeded Gunderson 6-1.

Unfortunately, Menlo lived up to its seeding the second round.

Menlo blanked Saratoga 7-0 to knock the Falcons out of the tournament. Menlo now advances to the semifinals against St. Francis with sights set on a possible title match against No. 2 seed Monta Vista.

For Saratoga, the season is over. But what a season it was. The Falcons put together a 15-6 record, played their way into the CCS tournament, and opened that tourney with a 6-1 win over Gunderson.

Junior Peter Rickgauer started the Falcons on the road to victory against the Grizzlies when he put together a 7-5, 6-3 win at No. 2 singles.

Lee Modi split the first two sets at No. 3 singles, winning 6-2 before losing 4-6. But his opponent retired trailing 3-1 in the final set to give Modi the victory.

Sophomore Elong Chiu nailed a 6-2, 6-3 win at No. 4 singles, and sophomore Brian Doore won 6-2, 6-2 at No. 5 singles.

Junior Danny Myers and junior David Chao teamed for a 6-4, 6-3 win at No. 1 doubles and senior Chung Ho Park and sophomore Scott Swanberg capped the day with a 6-2, 6-2 victory at No. 2 doubles.

Falcons win

Dave Schneider finished his junior season in impressive fashion by tossing the Saratoga baseball team to an 11-5 win over Los Altos.

Schneider fired a seven-hitter to push his season record to 4-3. The Falcons improved to 10-8 in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League and to 15-11 for the year.

Senior Kyle Cardin capped a great year by blasting his eighth home run of the season. He finished the day with three hits and drove in five runs for the Falcons.

Trent Frisina singled and doubled to bring in a pair of runs, and David Goni had two hits to knock in three. Troy Cardin ripped a double for the Falcons.

The win followed a tough loss to Cupertino earlier in the week. That loss knocked the Falcons out of contention for the title in the El Camino Division.

Frisina had two hits, but the Falcons lost 8-2 to the Pioneers. Cupertino went on to split a couple of games with Gunn to finish in a title tie with the Titans. Each club wrapped up the league season at 11-7, with Saratoga close behind at 10-8.

Lynbrook, the El Camino Division leader for most of the year, lost 7-5 to Santa Clara to end the year with a 10-8 record and tied with Saratoga for third in the division. The Vikings were 12-12 for the year.

Shawn Flood blasted a home run, and Dan Hoss and Stace Russo each singled and doubled, but it wasn't enough for the Vikings against the Bruins. Greg Cirimele also had two hits.

Warriors win title

Westmont needed a win on the final day of the season to win the title in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

And the Warriors got it, thanks to a big day by senior Zack Felder.

Felder went the distance to toss the Warriors to an 8-6 win over Mt. Pleasant, and he helped his club at the plate with a two-run homer. Felder ran his mound record to 6-1 with the win.

Ryan Hanson led the eight-hit attack for the Warriors with a pair of solo homers and a single. Scott Smith doubled twice and Tony La-Vista had two hits to knock in two runs.

The win left the Warriors 15-3 in the division and Mt. Pleasant slipped back into second at 14-4. Westmont is 18-6 for the year.

Panthers split

Prospect finished the year with a win in the Santa Teresa Division of the BVAL, but the Panthers lost 15-2 to Gunderson earlier in the week to drop into third place in the division.

Brandon Morgan singled and tripled to drive in three runs, and Mark Johnston had three hits to lead the Panthers to a 10-9 win in eight innings against Silver Creek. Johnston was the winning pitcher for Prospect.

Brad King, Tim Anderson and Dave Hildreth had two hits each for the Panthers, and Brian McConnell doubled.

Prospect, 10-7 in division play and 12-10 for the year, lost to Gunderson earlier in the week despite getting doubles by Hildreth, Dan Baucus and Garrett Langworthy.

Ha, Sharpe win

Cindy Sharpe and Tim Ha of Prospect combined for a 15-8, 15-3 win in the finals to take the mixed doubles badminton title in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. Finals were held last week.

Freshmen win

A freshman winning a CCS championship?

Never happens, right? Wrong.

It happened not once, but twice when the best divers of the CCS got together for their championship finals at Gunderson High School last week.

Homestead Gordon Blukis and Valley Christian's Jessica Newman, both freshman, dove to CCS titles at the finals, and they both dominated the field in the process.

Blukis rolled up 277.35 in the preliminaries to rank as the top contender heading into the finals. Once in the finals, the Homestead freshman put together 386.25 points to easily win the CCS title.

Senior Matt Borek of Carmel was a distant second with 325.55 points in the boys' finals.

Matt Talluto of Westmont was 18th at 178.30, freshman Aaron Bremer of Prospect was 20th at 170.80 and Prospect sophomore Robert Long was 26th at 100.00.

[ Back to Contents Page | Saratoga News Home Page | Archives ]