Of course, there is no WCAL in field hockey--Mitty, St. Francis and St. Ignatius all played in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League. But if not for No. 5 seed Gilroy, it would be an all-Catholic school semifinal round coming up on Nov. 15.

No. 6 seed SI (9-7-1) knocked No. 3 Leland (13-3-3) out of the playoffs with a 1-0 win last Saturday, and No. 1 Mitty (15-1-2) dropped No. 9 Leigh (9-4-3) 1-0 in overtime the same day.

No. 2 St. Francis (12-2-4) pulled out a 2-1 win over No. 10 Saratoga (8-9-2) and Gilroy (17-1-2) edged No. 4 Los Gatos (11-5-1) 3-1 on penalty strokes.

Gilroy had opened the playoffs by blanking Del Mar (9-4-4) 3-0 in the first round. In other first-round games, SI blasted North Salinas (9-5) 6-0, Saratoga bumped off Lynbrook (8-3-4) 2-1 and Leigh blanked Presentation (10-5-3) 3-0.

First-half goals by Alex Block (off a Maddie Block assist) and Rachel Sabes (off a Kate Barco assist) helped the Falcons nail the 2-1 win over Lynbrook to open the playoffs.

Rounding out the Saratoga field hockey team this fall were Laura Barrett, Annie Batanides, Caroline Charles, Alexis Arnold, Natalie Usher, Charlene Lyn, Shweta Balakrishnan, Nicole Sabes, Julie Seago, Lauren Kaye, Chelsea Farmer, Melissa Mandell, Kelly Seago, Tamara Schroeder, Ava Amundsen, Alison Raisian, Elisha Paul and Dilara Cirit.

Girls tennis

Four teams entered the CCS tennis semifinals on Monday after posting some pretty impressive scores the tournament--they had outscored opponents 49-2 in team play.

No. 1 seed Monta Vista (23-3) had beaten Los Gatos (13-7) 4-0 and No. 8 St. Francis (14-8); No. 2 Saratoga (22-3) had blanked Fremont (18-3) and No. 7 Leland (16-2) by matching 7-0 scores; No. 3 Menlo (24-5) had whipped Monterey (14-3) and No. 6 St. Ignatius (17-8) by 7-0 scores; and No. 5 Mitty had handled Robert Louis Stevenson (14-6) 5-0 and No. 4 Sacred Heart Prep (19-7) 5-2.

But something had to give on Monday since only two could advance to the CCS championship round that coming Nov. 16, 2 p.m., at the Courtside Tennis Club in Los Gatos.

Freshman Kelly Lamble cruised 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1 singles and Frances Lin and Alison Daniel teamed for a 6-1, 6-2 win at No. 1 doubles to start the Falcons on the road to the 7-0 win over Leland last week. The win came a day after Saratoga had opened the playoffs with the 7-0 win over Fremont.

The team season will end this week with the CCS title match, but that doesn't mean the tennis season will be over. Top singles players and doubles teams will advance to the CCS tournament at Courtside.

Saratoga will send two doubles teams to the tourney. Lindsey Marsh and Kara Wang will enter the event along with teammates Lin and Daniel.

Marsh and Wang finished second in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League to earn their place in the CCS tourney. Lin and Daniel finished third in the league tournament.

The Marsh-Wang team beat a Monta Vista pair 6-0, 7-5 in the league semifinals before falling to Taskeen Bains and Courtney Chin of Monta Vista in the title match.

Lin and Daniel lost 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to Bains and Chin in the semi's, then beat the other Monta Vista twosome 2-6, 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 in the third-place match.

Lamble represented Saratoga in the league singles tournament. She opened with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 win, but lost 6-1, 6-2 to Samantha Lam of Los Altos in the semifinals before falling 6-4, 2-3 (retired) in the third-place match.

Girls volleyball

Last week was the end of the line for girls volleyball teams from Westmont, Prospect and Saratoga. The Warriors lost in the CCS Division II quarterfinals while the Panthers and Falcons both lost in the first round of the Division III tourney.

No. 11 seed Westmont, 20-14, opened the playoffs with a mild upset over No. 6 seed Palo Alto (19-13), winning a five-game thriller 23-25, 25-21, 18-25, 25-23, 16-14. But the Warriors couldn't hold off No. 3 seed Leigh a match later, losing 25-20, 28-26, 25-22.

The Warriors had posted a 10-4 record in league play to finish in the tie for third place with Leland in the BVAL's Mt. Hamilton Division behind Leigh (13-1) and Branham (11-3).

Prospect (13-8) lost its CCS opener to No. 4 Branham (19-13), falling 25-22, 25-19, 25-23.

The Panthers had posted a 12-0 record to run away with the championship in the West Valley Division of the BVAL this fall. Members of the championship team included Janaye Fletcher, Courtney Guetschow, Lizzie Miller, Kendra Rimbach, Brittany Ross-Badillo, Shannan Slagle, Devin Cannon, Tessa Fischer, Zlata Malicevic, Kimmie Osborne, Jen Ton, Marian Lu and Kristin Rimbach.

The Falcons, No. 9 seed in Division III, finished their season at 14-18 following a tough five-game loss to No. 8 Aragon (20-10). Saratoga lost to the Dons 25-20, 25-27, 25-21, 18-25, 15-12.

Cross country

Junior Brad Jacobs and freshman Katie Nast came through with solid performances at the CCS Division III cross country finals last weekend.

Jacobs covered the 2.95-mile course at Crystal Springs in 16:11 to finish 10th in his division, and Nast ran 19:26 to finish 11th in her race.

The Saratoga boys finished ninth as a team at CCS. Supporting Jacobs were Henry Barmeier, 30th in 17:06; Ken Douglas, 59th in 17:51; Scott Surrette, 62nd in 17:56; and Alan Menezes, 71st in 18:21.

Nast led the Saratoga girls to a team ninth in Division III. Freshman Amanda Speedy was 19th in 19:58 with sophomore Katrin Cooper 54th in 21:20, junior Brianna Troxell 74th in 22:21 and junior Laurel Hui 76th in 22:29.

Jen Kocisko of Prospect raced to a 33rd-place finish in 20:39 in the Division III girls race.

Lynbrook's MayC Huang finished 17th in 19:31 to lead the Vikings to a ninth-place team finish in Division II. Cindy Ju was 41st in 20:17 with Yvonne Fong 49th in 20:49.