Two days after they helped their team secure its third consecutive Northern California team tennis championship, two Matadors ventured out on their own. Junior Taskeen Bains and sophomore Courtney Chin won four straight matches to capture the doubles crown at the Central Coast Section individual championships held Nov. 21-22 at the Courtside Tennis Club in Los Gatos.

Sam Rosekrans of Atherton's Sacred Heart Prep captured the singles title, outlasting Mitty freshman Tayler Davis in a three-set tiebreaker for the championship. Monta Vista freshman Sophie Chang reached the semi-final round, but bowed to Rosekranz and eventually settled for fourth place.

Bains and Chin, who earned the top seed in the field of 16 by winning the doubles titles in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League earlier in the month, breezed into the championship match without losing a set, but things would be different in the finals against Saratoga's Lindsey Marsh and Kara Wang.

The Monta Vista tandem took the first set, 6-2, but Marsh and Wang won the second, 6-4, to force a third set. After both teams battled for each point, Bains and Chin pulled out the third set and the championship, 7-6, including a 7-4 tiebreaker.

Bains and Chin opened the tournament with a pair of wins on Nov. 21, including a 6-0, 6-2 triumph over Oak Grove's Erin Brittain and Cassandra Borjon in the quarterfinal round. The Oak Grove team had ousted Lynbrook's Anita Wong and Anusha Sritheran, 6-2, 6-1, in the opening round.

In the next day's semifinals, Bains and Chin turned back Archbishop Mitty's Anita Athavale and Sami Kawahara, 6-4, 6-4. Meanwhile, in the other semifinal match, Marsh and Wang outdueled Menlo's Gaby Filipcik and Amanda Pade, 6-2, 7-6 (8-6). The Saratoga duo had won two matches on the first day of the event, including a 6-0, 6-0 romp in the quarterfinals over Gina Nguyen and Samantha Chen of Notre Dame-San Jose.

Another Saratoga team, fifth-seeded Frances Lin and Allison Daniel, easily won its first-round match, 6-0, 6-1, over Pinewood's Mithya Srinivasian and Maxine Lim. However, the Falcon pair lost 6-1, 6-3 in the quarterfinals to Mitty's Athavale and Kawahara, who eventually finished fourth.

Earlier, the Mitty duo got off to a good start with a 6-0, 6-3 triumph in the first round over seniors Caitlin Alesch and Connie Wang, one of two Leland teams in the event.

The Chargers' other entry, freshmen Allison Hsia and Aileen Tsay, also lost in the first round, falling 6-3, 6-4 to Notre Dame's Nguyen and Chen.

Rosekrans lost only two games in her first two matches, before running into Monta Vista's Chang in the semifinals. Chang, who had whipped Santa Cruz's Alyssa Roberg, 6-2, 6-0, and Harker's Christina Yee, 6-1, 6-1, on the first day, came out strong in the semifinal. The first set was tied 6-6 before Rosekrans won the tiebreaker, 7-4. The Sacred Heart junior then beat Chang 6-4 in the second set.

Jacobs runs at state

Saratoga junior Brad Jacobs earned a place at the state cross country finals with a strong showing at the Central Coast Section meet, and he represented his school well on Nov. 26 at Woodward Park in Fresno.

Jacobs, who had placed 10th in the CCS Division III meet, raced to a 53rd-place finish at state, stopping the watch at 16:37. He had run 16:11 on the 2.95-mile course at Crystal Springs in Belmont in the CCS finals.

Homestead Cup

Most of the 38 high school boys soccer teams entered in the 12th annual Homestead Christmas Cup will be in action on Dec. 3 as group play continues with 16 games at five sites.

Hosted by Homestead and organized and directed by Mustangs coaches Luis Comesana and Jeff Kordes, the Christmas Cup has grown into one of the Bay Area's best pre-season soccer tournaments. This year's field features 20 teams from last winter's Central Coast Section playoffs, including defending Division I champion Watsonville and Division II winner Archbishop Mitty. Local teams competing in the event are Homestead, Cupertino, Fremont, Lynbrook, Monta Vista, Prospect, Saratoga, Leigh, Los Gatos, Pioneer, Leland, Lincoln and Willow Glen.

Homestead will host three games on Saturday, beginning at noon. Homestead and Lynbrook will clash at 1:45 p.m. Meanwhile, both Lincoln and Willow Glen will host five games Saturday, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Among the games set for Lincoln are Fremont-Lincoln at 10:15 a.m., Santa Cruz-Los Gatos at noon and Leland-Aptos at 3:30 p.m. At Willow Glen, a Harbor-Saratoga match follows the Rams' 1:45 p.m. contest against Menlo Atherton.

Other games Saturday include a 1 p.m. double-header at Mitty and Monta Vista's 2 p.m. clash at Gilroy. Two games also will be played on Dec. 5, including Cupertino's 7 p.m. contest against visiting Mt. Pleasant. Group play concludes on Dec. 10, with two games at Homestead and five each at De Anza College, Willow Glen and Lincoln. The top two teams from each group will compete in the Round of 16 on Dec. 17. Quarterfinals are set for Dec. 19 with the semifinals and championship games to be played the next day.

Mike Barnhart contributed to this story.