Photograph by Skye Dunlap
Homestead's Shawnti Bortoli slides home safely with a run in last week's 14-3 win over Fremont. Bortoli homered and singled for the Mustangs.
Same old story for Mustangs
Homestead volleyball just wins, wins, wins
By Dick Sparrer
Things could start to get a bit monotonous for a team that does the same thing over and over and over again.
Take the Homestead boys volleyball team, for example. It's the same thing every match for Mustangs this spring ... win, win, win.
But there's a strange thing about winning. A team can do it over and over, and it just never gets old.
If you don't believe it, just ask the Mustangs and their fans. They're winning, and loving every minute of it.
Homestead won again last week, backing up a championship in the Alisal Invitational with two Santa Clara Valley Athletic League victories.
The Mustangs won six straight matches to take the Alisal crown. It marked the third tournament championship of the year for Homestead.
Aaron Mansfield was tagged the tournament's most valuable player and teammate Kavon Hassani-Azad was named to the all-tournament team after leading the Mustangs to the title.
Homestead beat Leland 15-9, 15-10 in the quarterfinals, Harbor 15-8, 15-8 in the semifinals and Hanford 15-12, 15-11 in the championship match at Alisal.
The Mustangs had rolled to three wins in pool play, beating Lincoln of San Francisco 15-5, 15-9, Watsonville 15-5, 15-0 and Live Oak 15-10, 15-6.
Following the tourney championship, Homestead returned to league play to knock off Mountain View and Los Gatos in back-to-back matches.
The Mustangs handled the Spartans 15-0, 15-3, 15-11 beating the Wildcats in four games, 13-15, 15-8, 15-8, 15-3.
Mansfield floored 26 kills and Hassani-Azad had 17 in the big win over Los Gatos.
The Mustangs are now 23-0 for the year and 4-0 in league play.
In other local volleyball action, Kelen Sorauf had 10 kills but Fremont lost 14-16, 15-7, 15-4, 15-5 to Saratoga in SCVAL play. The Firebirds, 1-3 in league and 9-11 for the year, had fallen 15-3, 15-8, 11-15, 15-4 to Los Gatos to open the week.
The King's Academy won twice last week, beating Menlo 15-13, 15-2, 15-7 and Fremont Christian 11-15, 15-9, 15-6, 15-7. The Knights are 5-9 for the year and 4-3 in the Private Schools League.
Simon leads Fremont
Freshman Jason Simon fired a four-over par 40, but the Fremont golf team dropped a 224-255 decision to Mountain View last week at the Shoreline Golf Course in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
Eric Domke supported with a 46 for the Firebirds. Ted Masten fired a 52, Chris Healy a 58 and Jason Dreyfus a 59.
Earlier in the week, Healy topped the Firebirds with a 48 at Shoreline in a 210-267 loss to the Spartans. Hauoli Isa ended up with a 52, Masten a 54, Bryne Nichols a 55 and Domke a 58.
The two losses leave Fremont 1-8 in the division.
In other local golf action, Homestead lost 218-228 to Santa Clara in the El Camino Division.
Mustangs win two
Karen Purdy tossed a couple of wins and Danielle Harris crushed six hits in two games to lead the Homestead girls softball team to wins over Fremont and Cupertino last week.
Harris homered, doubled and singled twice to drive in four runs in Homestead's 12-9 win over the Pioneers. Purdy tossed a five-hitter for the win, pushing her record to 5-4.
Danielle Bailey had three hits for the Mustangs and Jennifer Caballero singled and doubled to knock in two runs. Paula Kane and Julie Colvin had two hits apiece in the win and Brandi Tomasovitch doubled and knocked in three runs.
Marisa Scarpelli had three hits to plate three runs for the Pioneers and Corrine Adkins tripled home three runs.
The Mustangs, 8-8 for the year and 4-2 in the El Camino Division, had opened the week with a 14-3 win over Fremont.
Shawnti Bortoli homered and singled to drive in three runs and Harris had two hits to knock in a pair. Andrea Watson also drove in two runs for the Mustangs.
Purdy was the winning pitcher, tossing a four-hitter for Homestead.
Robin Glass tripled and singled to account for two of her club's four hits.
Fremont lost a 7-6 heartbreaker to Gunn later in the week. The Titans rallied for five runs in the seventh to pull out the win.
The Firebirds had just three hits in the game, one of them a triple by Glass.
Neufeld blanks two
The King's Academy pulled out two wins last week in the Private Schools League, pounding Pinewood 19-0 and blanking Valley Christian of Dublin 9-0.
Kathryn Neufeld tossed the Knights to each of the two wins, throwing two-hit shutouts in both games.
Neufeld struck out 19 and walked none in the win over Valley Christian. She also helped herself with a triple and a single.
Katie Shockey tripled and singled twice to drive in two runs.
Carissa Threewitt singled and doubled and Angela Guidi, Katie Henderson and Krista Lutz each had two hits.
The Knights, 12-3 for the year and 7-1 in league, opened the week with the 19-0 win over Pinewood.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
