Saratoga News

Sports

Falcons are run over by division leaders

By Dick Sparrer

Homestead and Mountain View appear to be on a collision course in the race for the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League boys volleyball championship this spring. And last week, Saratoga's young Falcons stumbled into their path.

The Falcons opened the week against defending league champion Homestead and dropped a 25-11, 25-12, 25-22 decision. A couple of days later Saratoga challenged Mountain View and lost 25-19, 25-22, 25-23.

The two defeats left the Falcons with a 3-4 league record while the Mustangs and Spartans each improved to 7-0. The two leaders will collide this week when Mountain View hosts Homestead on April 3.

Saratoga, meanwhile, will be home for two matches this week as the Falcons attempt to get back on the winning track. Saratoga will entertain Wilcox on April 3 and Lynbrook on April 5 in a pair of 6:45 p.m. bouts. Sandwiched between the two home matches will be a trip to Fremont on April 4, 6:45 p.m.

Mountain View, a team loaded with seniors and size, pushed its season record to 19-0 with the win over Saratoga. Junior outside hitter Doug Sabella was the standout for the Falcons with eight kills, four aces and a block.

Junior Kent Johnson was the leader for Saratoga in the loss to Homestead. Johnson finished with five kills, two blocks and four assists.

Saratoga wrapped up a busy week by going 2-2 in the Charger Classic tournament at Leland. The Falcons lost to Bellarmine 24-23, 25-11 but fought back with wins over Westmont 25-23, 17-25, 15-11 and Kennedy 25-19, 20-25, 15-9 to get into the tournament's gold bracket.

Saratoga then went up against a familiar foe, No. 1 seed Homestead, and lost 25-17, 25-16.

Juniors Sabella, Johnson and Mike Vetrone were standouts in the tournament for the Falcons.

Falcons power to win

Lisa Brenner, Nicole Gragnola and Jacqueline Gragnola each ripped home runs to lead the Saratoga girls softball team to a 14-9 win over Gunn in El Camino Division play last week.

The Titans had taken the early lead with a run in the bottom of the first, but Saratoga unloaded for seven runs in the top of the second. Gunn answered with four in the bottom of the frame to make it close at 7-5, but the Falcons added two in the fourth, two more in the fifth, one in the sixth and two in the seventh to clinch the win.

J. Gragnola had a big day for the Falcons with five hits, including the home run and a triple. She knocked in four runs in the win. Brenner had three hits and drove in two runs, Laura Ruddy tripled twice and Victoria Azzi had two hits. Lisa Ruddy had a hit and knocked in two runs and Satomi Ishikawa also singled home a run.

N. Gragnola stole three bases for the Falcons and Brenner and Stephanie Douglass swiped two apiece.

Brenner was the winning pitcher for Saratoga, pushing her record to 3-2 for the year, which matches the Falcons' season mark. Saratoga is 1-1 in division play. The Falcons opened league play with an 8-4 loss to Palo Alto. In non-league play, Saratoga split with Prospect, winning 12-4 and losing 13-5, and beat Willow Glen 14-2.

The Falcons faced three games this season, meeting Wilcox on April 2 before heading to Santa Clara on April 4 and hosting Los Altos on April 6. All games begin at 4 p.m.

Girls are on track

They may be young, but the girls on the Saratoga track and field team are running away from the competition in the El Camino Division dual meet season this spring.

With three juniors, four sophomores and one freshman winning events last week, the Falcons breezed past Wilcox 80-47 to improve to 5-0 in the division season.

Junior sisters Rachel and Nicole Sabes and junior Katrine Cooper, veterans on the Saratoga squad, each ran to victories to lead the Falcons to the win over the Chargers.

R. Sabes was tops in the 400-meter run in 1:02.15 and N. Sabes raced to a win in the 800 in 2:25.01. Cooper was a winner at 3,200 meters in 13:40.42.

Sophomore Kelly Lamble, a local age group tennis star who has turned her attention to distance running at the high school, romped to a win in the 1,600 meters in 5:36.56.

Soph Katie Marsh covered the 300 hurdles in 52.19 for a Saratoga win, and two Falcon sophomores were winners in field events. Ashley Cole took the long jump at 16-1.5 and Kierston Dolbec took the high jump at 5-2.

Freshman Sarah Guy sprinted to a victory in the 200 meters in 26.81, and the Falcons won both relays--taking the 4x100 in 52.14 and the 4x400 in 4:27.39.

In the boys meet, Wilcox won every event as the Chargers stuck the Falcons with their first loss of the league dual meet season. Saratoga lost 104-14 and is now 4-1 in division competition.

The Saratoga boys and girls teams will be back in action when they visit Homestead on April 5, 3 p.m., in a pair of league dual meets.

Hornberger wins again

Myles Hornberger maintained his winning ways, and it was enough to help the Saratoga baseball team split a couple of decisions with Santa Clara last week.

Hornberger flipped a 4-hit shutout to lead the Falcons to a 3-0 win over the Bruins. Hornberger pushed his mound record to 5-0 with the win.

Sean Casserly led the offensive effort with a couple of hits to drive in two runs.

Saratoga, 4-3 in the El Camino Division and 6-5 for the year, had lost to Santa Clara 3-1 earlier in the week.

Falcons net victories

Saratoga's Rohit D'Costa and Abhinav Dev teamed for a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 1 doubles to lead the Falcons to a 6-1 win over Lynbrook last week. The victory, coupled with a tight 4-3 triumph over Los Altos, helped the Falcons improve to 8-0 in the De Anza Division and to 12-2 for the year.

Golfers fall to Mats

Stephen Hoffman and J.B. Lee each finished with 4-over par 38s, but the Saratoga golf team dropped a tough 202-203 decision to Monta Vista at the Saratoga Country Club last week.

The Falcons, who had beaten Wilcox 203-224 earlier in the week, are now 6-1-1 in the El Camino Division.