Saratoga News
Sports
Photograph by Brian Connelly
Saratoga senior Peter Sclavos flies high for a kill in a match against first-place Homestead last week. The Falcons lost to the Mustangs, but came back to beat Santa Clara with Sclavos getting six kills and two blocks.
Volleyball team finishes on winning note
Hyde strikes gold at swimming finals
By Dick Sparrer
Entering the final week of the regular season, the Saratoga boys volleyball team had a mathematical shot at wrapping up a .500 season in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. All the Falcons had to do was win their final two matches.
Of course, even with the outstanding match program they have at Saratoga High, there was little chance for the equation to work itself out--the Falcons had to open the week against first-place Homestead.
No one had been able to beat the Homestead volleyball team in league play this season, and it was no different last Tuesday night at Saratoga. The Falcons went down in defeat 25-20, 25-12, 25-15 against the Mustangs.
Homestead came back with a win later in the week to finish the league season perfect at 14-0. The Mustangs are now headed to the Central Coast Section playoffs as the No. 1 seed with an impressive 25-4 record.
Saratoga, meanwhile, missed its chance at a .500 season, but head coach Brad Frederickson's Falcons did manage to finish the year in impressive fashion with a three-game win over Santa Clara.
The Falcons cruised past the Bruins 25-13, 25-11, 25-22 to finish the season with a 12-16 record and wrap up league play at 6-8.
Sophomore sensation Mike Vetrone led the Falcons with seven kills and nine service aces. Senior Peter Sclavos finished up his solid high school career with six kills and two blocks and sophomore Jason Chun came off the bench to hammer home five kills.
Sophomore middle blocker Kent Johnson supported the effort with four kills, a block and four aces and soph Doug Sabella added four kills and an ace.
Vetrone had drilled seven kills earlier in the week, but the Falcons lost 25-20, 25-12, 25-15 to league champion Homestead.
Jamie Pak, James Liao and Sclavos each played their final match for Saratoga this past week, but with only three graduating seniors the future looks bright for the Falcons.
Junior Ammar Kothari, sophomores Nick McConnell and Mike Hutchins and freshman Shawyon Malek rounded out the Saratoga squad this spring.
Falcons win
Saratoga got off to a good start in the CCS Division II tennis tournament, and Falcons hope for a good finish as they attempt to reclaim the section championship they won back in 2004.
The Falcons opened the tourney with a 6-1 win over Burlingame (18-3) after drawing a first-round bye. Saratoga, 19-0 for the season, entered CCS as the No. 2 seed in the tournament behind Sacred Heart Prep (18-2).
Saratoga will face No. 3 Robert Louis Stevenson in the tourney semifinals on May 9. Stevenson (10-0) opened the tournament with a 5-2 win over St. Ignatius (16-6). Sacred Heart Prep and No. 4 Menlo (18-5) square off in the other semi. Matches are slated for 3 p.m. at the Courtside Tennis Club.
The Falcons made short work of Burlingame in the quarter-final round. Jeff Gast cruised to a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 1 singles and Emerson Lin and Albert Chiang teamed for a hard-fought three-set win at No. 1 doubles, winning 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (14-12) at Saratoga.
All four of the tournament's seeded teams played to expectations. Saratoga and Stevenson each posted first-round wins, as did Sacred Heart Prep, 6-1 over Aragon (14-8), and Menlo, 7-0 over San Mateo (13-10).
Douglas, Sabes sisters star
Ken Douglas and the Sabes sisters provided the one-two punch--and got a little help from their friends--to lead the Saratoga track and field squads to solid efforts at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League El Camino Division finals last week.
Leading the Falcons at the league finals were Douglas and Rachel and Nicole Sabes, who each had an individual win and a second-place finish for Saratoga. Kiersten Dolbec and Ken Tang were also individual winners for the Falcons in the meet.
The Saratoga boys and girls will now advance to SCVAL qualifying meet slated for May 13 at Los Gatos. The top six finishers there advance to the CCS meet.
R. Sabes, N. Sabes and Douglas were outstanding at the division finals to lead the Saratoga showing.
R. Sabes sprinted to a first in the 200 meters in 26.72 with N. Sabes second in 26.87, and N. Sabes won the 400 in 60.53 with R. Sabes second in 61.33. The two also made up half of Saratoga's winning 4x400 relay team, the quartet running 4:14.91 to finish almost four seconds ahead of runner-up Mountain View.
Dolbec was tops in the high jump with a 5-2 effort. Katie Nast chipped in with a second in the 3,200 and Amanda Speedy was third in the 800 in 2:30.45.
The Saratoga girls finished second to Mountain View in the team standings. The Spartans finished with 130 points to win with Saratoga second at 75 and Wilcox third at 70.
Douglas raced to a win in the 1,600-meter run in 4:35.15 and backed that up with a second in the 800 in 1:59.52.
Tang raced to a win in the 110 high hurdles in 15.64 and Jeff Marshall added a second in the 400 in 52.45.
The foursome sparked the Saratoga boys to a team fourth at the league meet behind Mountain View (115), Wilcox (114) and Santa Clara (54). Saratoga was a close fourth at 52.
Hyde a winner
Hayes Hyde tested the water at Palo Alto High School last week. And as far as the Saratoga sophomore was concerned, the water was just fine.
Hyde, on the other hand, was better than fine. She won a gold medal to lead the Saratoga effort at the De Anza Division league meet.
Hyde won the 200-yard freestyle in 1:54.73 to finish as the only Saratoga league champion in both the boys and girls competition. Teammate Lisa Chu added a second in the 100 breaststroke.
The two girls joined Saratoga's Ben Hinshaw as a medal winner in the league meet. Hinshaw finished third in the 500 free in 4:46.29.
All of the Saratoga placers will now lead a contingent of Falcons who have qualified for the upcoming CCS finals set for this weekend at Stanford. The swimming preliminaries begin at 11 a.m. on May 12 with the finals set for May 13 at 1 p.m. Diving prelims are at 9:30 p.m. Saturday with the finals at 1 p.m. the same day.
Back-to-back wins
The Saratoga baseball team can't win the El Camino Division championship this spring, but the Falcons certainly want to have a say in who does.
The Falcons made a bold statement in that direction last week with a 6-2 win over Homestead, the team that led the division for the first half of the league season.
The Mustangs have slipped to 8-5 in league play, their most recent setback a 6-2 loss at the hands of the Falcons. Saratoga improved to 5-9 in the division and to 7-14 for the year with the win.
Scott Darchuk singled and doubled to drive in two runs to lead the Falcons to the win. Sean Casserly picked up the victory on the mound, pushing his season record to 1-2.
Saratoga broke up a scoreless tie with a couple of runs in the third, then added two more in the sixth and two in the seventh to take a commanding 6-0 lead. The Mustangs answered with two in the bottom of the seventh, but came up well short.
Homestead could manage just four hits in the game while the Falcons unloaded for 14.
It was win No. 2 of the week for the Falcons, who beat Fremont 19-13 in a slugfest to open the week.
Matt Wright blasted two home runs and Jeff Roberts cracked one to lead the 19-hit attack for the Falcons. Wright also singled twice, scored four runs and knocked in four runs in the win.
Bo Nielsen was the recipient of the offensive support and managed to claim the mound win. He's now 3-4 for the year.
Fremont scored a run in the first to take an early lead, but Saratoga unloaded for eight in the home half of the first. Fremont answered with three in the second, but the Falcons got a run back in the last of the second and then broke loose for six more in the third to lead 15-4.
Saratoga just couldn't shake the Firebirds, though. Fremont added four in the fourth and six in the fifth while the Falcons could manage just a run in the fourth. It was 16-13 heading into the sixth when Saratoga put the game away with three more runs.
