Saratoga News

Sports

Falcons open CCS tennis tourney with a 7-0 shutout win over Mitty

By Dick Sparrer

The Falcons were only spectators when Archbishop Mitty opened the Central Coast Section team tennis tournament with a 6-1 win over Salinas last Wednesday. But two days later, the Saratoga boys got down to business and blanked the Monarchs 7-0 to advance to the tourney quarterfinals this week.

John Lamble rolled 6-2, 6-2 at No. 1 singles and Rohit D'Costa and Abhinav Dev teamed for a 6-4, 6-2 win at No. 1 doubles to lead the Falcons to the lopsided win over the Monarchs, who finished the year with a 16-6 record.

Saratoga improved to 18-2 with the win, and the tournament's No. 2 seed was to advance to the quarterfinals on Monday against St. Ignatius, a 4-3 upset winner over No. 7 Robert Louis Stevenson last Friday. The Wildcats are 18-5 for the year.

The winner of Monday's match advances to the tourney semifinals on May 9, noon, at Courtside against the No. 3 Menlo (18-3)-No. 6 Los Altos (15-7) winner. The finals are set for May 11, 2 p.m., at Courtside.

No. 1 Sacred Heart Prep (25-0), No. 4 Bellarmine (21-2), No. 5 Palo Alto (21-2) and unseeded Gunn (20-2) also remain alive in the tourney.

Shepherd advances

Saratoga's Steven Shepherd posted a two-day total of 156 to tie for fifth overall at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League golf tournament and clinch a spot in the CCS regionals.

Shepherd's effort left him 12 over par on the San Juan Oaks Golf Course. He was scheduled to be in the CCS field on Monday with the top qualifiers there advancing to the CCS finals May 15 at Rancho Canada West in Carmel Valley.

Hinshaw a winner

Ben Hinshaw won one event and was second in another to lead the Saratoga boys swimming team's showing at the De Anza Division finals held last week at Monta Vista.

Hinshaw was first in the 200-yard individual medley in 1:58.92 and second in the 500 freestyle in 4:43.79 with Adam Hinshaw third in 4:50.65.

Marco Pance was third in the 50 free in 22.74, Matt Murray was third in the 100 butterfly in 54.02 and Takehiro Kurosawa was third in the 100 breaststroke in 1:03.97.

In the girls meet, Lauren Opatrny was second in the 100 breast in 1:09.61 and third in the 100 backstroke in 1:01.37 to pace the Falcons. Hayes Hyde was third in the 100 fly in 58.23 and Megan Nolet was third in the 500 free in 5:14.92.

Next up for the Saratoga swimmers will be the CCS finals set for May 18 and 19 at Stanford.

Falcons in playoffs

The Saratoga boys volleyball team will take a 15-16 season record into the CCS playoffs this week when the Falcons open on May 10, 7 p.m., at St. Francis (31-7). The Lancers are the No. 4 seed in the tourney and the Falcons earned the No. 13 spot.

The Falcons wrapped up a 9-7 finish in the rugged SCVAL with a split last week. Saratoga beat Wilcox 25-20, 25-13, 25-21 but lost to first-place Homestead 25-15, 25-8, 25-16. The Mustangs are 34-3 this year and enter CCS play as the No. 1 seed.

Mike Vetrone led the Falcons to the win over the Chargers last week with 12 kills, three aces, a block and 18 assists. Doug Sabella supported with nine kills and two aces and Kent Johnson finished with five block, seven kills and a team-high 19 assists. Ammar Kothari added five kills and three blocks.