Saratoga and Prospect have hopes of changing that in 2004.

The Falcons face the Wildcats and the Panthers take on the Monarchs in CCS semifinal games this week with the winners advancing to the CCS finals set for Nov. 20, 11 a.m., at Los Gatos.

Saratoga, 12-5-1 for the year, opened the CCS playoffs with a 4-3 win over St. Ignatius while Gatos, 14-4-1, was handling Gilroy 5-1. The clubs will collide on Nov. 16, 2:45 p.m., at Los Gatos with the winner moving into Saturday's title game.

In the other bracket, Prospect (10-5-3) opened the CCS tournament with a 5-1 win over North Salinas (10-2-1), then edged Monta Vista (12-4-2) 2-1 in overtime to advance to the semi's against Mitty. The Monarchs (12-2-3) won their opener 2-0 over University (15-1). The squads were to play Nov. 16, 1 p.m., at Gatos.

Mitty won the CCS crown in 2000 with a 1-0 win over the Wildcats, and the Lancers took the section title in 2001 with a 3-2 victory over the Cats. Los Gatos came back to win the CCS crown in 2002 with a 1-0 win over the Lancers, then Los Gatos and St. Francis tied for the championship last year, deadlocking 1-1 after regulation and two overtimes.

The Wildcats have played for the CCS championship in each of the past seven seasons and hope to be there again with a win over Saratoga on Nov. 16.

The Falcons earned their place in the semifinals with a tight 4-3 win over St. Ignatius. Gwen Bellomy, Suzanne Lessack and Kellie York will lead the Falcons into the semifinals this week.

Prospect had to win twice to get into the semi's. After pounded North Salinas in the first round, the Panthers edged the Matadors 2-1 in overtime. Senior Lizzie Innes scored off an assist from sophomore Paige Madsen to tie the game 1-1 in regulation, then Madsen scored off assists from Innes and senior Casie Reiss in overtime to give the Panthers the win and a berth in the semifinals.

Girls volleyball

Saratoga opened the CCS playoffs with a hard-earned 28-26, 25-19, 27-25 win over Harbor (26-9). The Falcons will now take their 16-14 season record into the CCS Division III semifinals against Sacred Heart Cathedral (32-5) on Nov. 18, 6 p.m., at Leland.

Westmont (23-13) had opened the Division II playoffs with a 25-19, 25-16, 25-23 win over Overfelt, but lost 25-7, 25-21, 25-11 a match later to Los Gatos (30-3).

Girls tennis

Valerie Tang won 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 singles to lead the Saratoga girls tennis team to a 6-1 win over Los Altos in the CCS team tennis quarter-finals.

The Falcons (18-5) had opened with a 7-0 win over Santa Catalina and will advance to the section semifinals. Saratoga was to face Menlo (13-0-1) on Nov. 15 with the winner to play for the CCS title on Nov. 17, 2 p.m., at Courtside in Los Gatos. Monta Vista (24-0) and Sacred Heart Prep (18-3) were to meet in the semifinals on the other side of the bracket.

Regardless of the outcome in the team tourney, Tang will be back in action on Nov. 22 at Courtside in the CCS individual tournament. Tang is the No. 4 seed in the singles tourney and opens against unseeded Yuka Yamaoka of Monterey. The winner will play later in the day against the Christina Yee (Harker)­Danielle Burke (San Benito) winner. The tourney semifinals and finals are set for Nov. 23, noon, at Courtside.

Unseeded Jovana Pavisic of Prospect was to open the singles tourney against No. 3 seed Sarah Hoffman of Menlo.