The Sun
Sunnyvale's Newspaper

Photograph by Robert Scheer

Fremont's Sheila Hess stares at Gillian Wadas after making the tag for the out call at home plate. The Lady Birds ended up losing 8-4 to the Wildcats.

Blukis dives to CCS title

Firebirds fall in volleyball playoffs

By Dick Sparrer

A freshman winning a Central Coast Section championship?

Never happens, right? Wrong.

It happened not once, but twice when the best divers of the CCS got together for their championship finals at Gunderson High School last week.

Homestead's Gordon Blukis and Valley Christian's Jessica Newman, both freshman, dove to CCS titles at the finals, and they both dominated the field in the process.

Blukis rolled up 277.35 in the preliminaries to rank as the top contender heading into the finals. Once in the finals, the Homestead freshman put together 386.25 points to easily win the CCS title.

Senior Matt Borek of Carmel was a distant second with 325.55 points in the boys' finals.

Newman dove to the girls' title with an impressive 410.20 points in the finals. Aragon senior Amanda Urioste was a distant second at 360.90.

Colleen Johnson of Presentation finished a solid sixth in the finals. The junior ran up 341.95 points to clinch sixth overall.

Freshman Kim Kelley of Prospect was 10th at 312.10, and frosh Danielle Sermer of Homestead was 12th at 304.20.

Monta Vista senior Sian Perry came through with 199.40 points in the semifinals, but barely missed advancing to the finals. She finished 20th overall, but only the top 18 moved to the finals.

Mustangs, 'Birds fall

The Fremont boys' volleyball team opened the first ever Central Coast Section playoffs with a victory, but the Firebirds lost in the second round to face elimination from the postseason tournament.

The Firebirds won a spot in the CCS playoffs, the first ever played in boys' volleyball, and opened with a 15-7, 14-16, 15-6, 15-12 victory over Fremont Christian.

But Fremont lost in the second round to pretournament favorite Los Gatos 15-5, 15-2, 15-0. The Firebirds finished the year with a 22-8 season record.

Homestead, meanwhile, lost to Soquel 15-1, 15-3, 15-13 in the first round of the playoffs to finish the season with a 24-10 record.

Los Gatos beat Soquel in the CCS championship last Saturday.

Wallis wins CCS title

Marcia Wallis of Los Gatos carded a 5-over-par 76 to win the girls' title at the Central Coast Section golf tournament played last week at the Laguna Seca Golf Course in Monterey.

Wallis, a sophomore, finished second in the tournament as a freshman competing for Harbor High.

Presentation's Danielle Orsua shot a 104 in the girls' tournament. Jennifer Atienza of Presentation fired a 105, Jackie Hivra of Presentation came home with a 106 and Haoli Isa of Fremont shot a 117.

Firebirds top Cats

Junior righthander Bryan McCann tossed a three-hit shutout to lead the Fremont baseball team to a 5-0 win over Los Gatos in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.

The Firebirds, 9-8 in the division and 11-12 for the year, broke open a scoreless game with two runs in the fifth, then put it away with three in the sixth.

Art Alegria doubled and drove in three runs to lead the Firebirds to the victory. McCann, who pushed his mound record to 3-2, ripped a double.

Mustangs win

It was a happy finish for the Homestead baseball team. The Mustangs blanked Los Gatos on a combined one-hitter by Steve Goldberg and Ben Amiwero.

Goldberg picked up the win in the game to push his mound record to 2-1, and Amiwero came on to claim his second save of the year.

The Mustangs broke up a scoreless battle with a run in the fifth, then Amiwero broke the game open with a two-run homer in the sixth.

Amiwero singled and homered to drive in two runs for the Mustangs. Kayzell Milton supported with a single and a double.

Homestead finished the regular season 8-10 in the De Anza Division and 11-15 for the year.

The Mustangs had lost to playoff-bound Milpitas 8-5 earlier in the week. Milton and Robby Griffith each doubled and singled twice for Homestead, and Goldberg had two hits.

It was a seven-run second-inning rally by Milpitas that was the difference in the game.

Milton singled and doubled, and Goldberg had two hits, but Homestead lost 5-1 to Palo Alto in other action last week.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, May 21, 1997.
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