Saratoga News
Sports
Falcons acing everyone--except Matadors
By Dick Sparrer
The girls tennis team at Saratoga High School has beaten every team in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League this season--that is, every team but one.
The Falcons are rolling right along through the De Anza circuit. The only bump in the road so far for Saratoga has been a 6-1 loss to powerhouse Monta Vista.
Saratoga has beaten Palo Alto, Los Gatos, Fremont, Los Altos and, most recently, Homestead.
Now the Falcons will begin their second trip through the schedule, and they'll need an upset win over the Matadors on Oct. 24 on the Saratoga courts to claim at least a tie for the division title. Actually, that's about the best the Falcons can hope for--because other than Saratoga, it doesn't look like anyone else in the division can beat Monta Vista.
The Falcons pushed their league record to 5-1 and their season mark to 7-3 with a solid 5-2 win over Homestead last week. Valerie Tang cruised to a 6-1, 6-0 win at No. 1 singles and Serena Lin and Joshi won 6-3, 6-1 at No. 1 doubles to drive Saratoga to the victory.
It was just a match earlier that the Falcons lost 6-1 to the Matadors, snapping a string of four league victories for Saratoga.
Tang won 6-1, 6-2 and Joshi and Lin teamed for a 6-2, 6-0 victory to lead the Falcons to a 6-1 win over Los Altos, and Saratoga blanked Fremont 7-0 with Tang winning 6-1, 6-2 at No. 1 singles and Lin and Joshi winning 6-0, 6-0 at No. 1 doubles.
Saratoga will hit the road this week for a key match against rival Los Gatos. The Cats, 4-2 in the division, will host the Falcons on Oct. 12, 3 p.m. Saratoga will then host Fremont on Oct. 17 and visit Los Altos on Oct. 19 in a pair of 3:30 p.m. matches before entering the rematch against the Matadors.
Hyde leads Falcons
Hayes Hyde poured in five goals and Kimi Hosseinian added three to lead the Saratoga girls water polo team to a solid 14-6 win over Mountain View last week.
Courtney Nolet, Marcy Lopez and Alison Norris supported with two goals each in the game as the Falcons evened their record at 1-1 in the De Anza Division.
The Falcons and Spartans were locked in a 3-3 tie after a period, but Saratoga pulled away by blanking Mountain View 3-0 in the second and outscoring Mountain View 4-1 in the third and 4-2 in the fourth.
Falcons fall to Cats
Marko Pance had six goals and an assist and Ryan Hinshaw tossed in two goals, but the Saratoga boys water polo team dropped a tight 10-8 decision to rival Los Gatos last week. The loss left the Falcons 1-3 in De Anza Division play.
The Falcons and Wildcats matched goals in the first, ending up 2-2 at the first buzzer, and again in the second, going in at intermission tied 4-4. But the Cats blanked the Falcons 3-0 in the third to take control of the game, then held on despite getting outscored 4-3 in the fourth.
"it was a pretty intense game ... pretty awesome," said Los Gatos coach Steve Spencer after the win over the Falcons.
Pance, who scored the first six goals of the game for the Falcons, tossed one in in the first 30 seconds to put the Falcons on top, but Mike Shamshoian of Los Gatos scored to tie it and Kyle Blair put the Cats up 2-1 with a goal just three minutes into the game. Pance tied it moments later.
"He's a phenomenal player," said Spencer of Pance. "We couldn't stop him."
Pance scored twice to open the second quarter to put the Falcons up 4-2.
"They controlled the game until the last minute and a half of the second quarter," said Spencer.
Stephen Krach scored with 1:37 left in the half and Blair scored on a man-up situation 27 seconds later to send the clubs in at the half tied at 4-4.
The game remained deadlocked most of the third quarter until Matt Gassman snapped the tie with a goal with 2:25 left in the period. Blair scored on a penalty shot, then Ramm Fadrilan scored with 18 seconds left in the quarter to give the Cats a 7-4 advantage.
Krach pitched in a goal in the first 30 seconds of the fourth period to up the lead to 8-4, but the lead was anything but comfortable. Pance scored on "a great outside shot," said Spencer, and the Falcons were hanging tough.
Blair's fourth goal made it 9-5, but Pance's sixth goal with 2:40 left cut it to 9-6.
Hinshaw fired in a goal for the Falcons with 1:45 remaining to trim the lead to 9-7, but Daniel Lyons scored for the Cats to give them a bit of a cushion at 10-7 with 1:20 left in the game.
Hinshaw managed one final goal with seven seconds left in the game, but it was too little, too late for the Falcons.
Volleyball team wins
Nicole Gragnola and Savina Surrette put together solid back-to-back kill efforts to lead the Saratoga girls volleyball team to a couple of De Anza Division wins last week.
Gragnola's nine kills sparked the Falcons to a hard-earned 25-20, 20-25, 24-26, 25-16, 15-11 win over Palo Alto, and Surrette's 11 kills led Saratoga to a 20-25, 25-12, 14-25, 24-9, 15-11 win over Mountain View.
The two five-game victories helped the Falcons improved to 4-1 in the De Anza Division season and to 18-5 for the year.
Saratoga faces some stiff competition in the next couple of matches. The Falcons, who were to host Homestead on Oct. 10, will travel to Los Gatos on Oct. 12 and entertain Los Altos on Oct. 17. All matches begin at 6:45 p.m.
Mitty tops 'Toga
A first-half goal by Maddie Block sent the Saratoga field hockey team in at intermission locked in a 1-1 tie with Archbishop Mitty, but the Falcons were whitewashed 3-0 in the second half and ended up falling 4-1 to the Monarchs.
Block's first-half goal off an Ava Amundsen assist matched a goal by Mitty's Katie Fleury to deadlock the game. But Fleury scored again in the second half and Mitty added two more goals to nail the victory.
Mitty improved to 5-0 in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League with the win and pushed its season mark to 10-0. The Falcons are now 0-4-1 in the division after opening the year with five straight wins.
Saratoga hit the road this week for a Tuesday game at Monta Vista and will return home on Oct. 17 to host St. Ignatius at 3 p.m.
