Photograph by Jill Toyoshiba
Fremont tennis stars Marlo Koehler (left) and Elisabeth Enghofer each won in singles play last week, but the Firebirds lost 4-3 to Homestead. Koehler and Enghofer are both foreign exchange students from Germany.
Koehler wins, but Fremont falls
Alexander kicks Mustangs to tie
By Dick Sparrer
Marlo Koehler won twice last week, but things didn't go quite as well for the Fremont girls tennis team.
Koehler won at No. 1 singles in matches against Saratoga and Homestead but the Firebirds lost both decisions, falling 6-1 to the Falcons in a nonleague match and losing a 4-3 heartbreaker to the Mustangs in a match in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League.
Koehler, a foreign exchange student from Germany, posted a hard-earned 6-7 (5-7), 6-2, 6-4 win at No. 1 singles, but that would be Fremont's only win of the day in a team loss to Saratoga.
Fremont came back to make things close in a league match against Homestead, but the Mustangs edged the Firebirds 4-3.
Koehler outdueled Home- stead star Rachel Pua 6-4, 6-3 at No. 1 singles, leading Fremont to one of two wins in singles play. But the Mustangs won twice in singles play and twice in doubles action to claim the team win.
Veterans Erin Hsu and Niki Delanney, who along with Pua were members of last year's championship team at Homestead, helped the Mustangs to the doubles wins. Hsu played on the No. 1 doubles team that won 7-6, 6-7, 7-3, and Delanney was half of the No. 2 pair that won 6-4, 6-2.
Elisabeth Enghofer, like Koehler a German exchange student at Fremont, won at No. 2 singles for the Firebirds and Crystal Pangilinan and Wendy Su won 6-2, 6-0 at No. 3 doubles.
Homestead improved to 5-2 in the El Camino Division with the win and Fremont slipped to 3-4 in league play with the loss.
Mustangs tie 'Toga
Scott Alexander drilled a 42-yard field goal in the final seconds of play to help Homestead pull out a 24-24 tie against Saratoga in the De Anza Division.
The Mustangs and Falcons battled through a tiebreaker in an overtime period and Homestead came out on top, but the game officially goes down as a tie. The tiebreaker is only used if the two clubs are deadlocked at the end of the season and there are Central Coast Section playoff implications.
Saratoga scored first on a field goal, but Homestead came back to take a first-period lead when Andy Amador scored on a 7-yard runh and Alexander kicked the extra point.
The Falcons scored to open the second quarter, but the Mustangs battled back to take the lead. Brandon Dougherty tossed a 47-yard touchdown pass to Eddy Sumpter and Alexander converted to give Homestead a 14-10 lead.
But Saratoga scored before the half and took a 16-14 lead in at intermission.
Homestead went back in front in the third quarter on a blistering 74-yard touchdown run by Steve Nichols. Alexander's third extra point kick helped the Mustangs regain the lead, 21-16.
Saratoga scored again and ran for the 2-point conversion to move in front 24-21, but that just set the stage for Alexander's late game heroics.
The Mustangs evened their season record at 2-2-1 with the tie and they are 0-1-1 in De Anza Division play. Homestead will host Palo Alto in league play on Oct. 13, 7:30 p.m., at Fremont. The Vikings are 0-2 in league and 1-4 overall.
Fremont falls
Los Altos scored four first-half touchdowns on the road to a 28-7 El Camino Division win over Fremont last Friday.
Junior running back Donnell Forks scored on a 2-yard run late in the second half but cut the Los Altos lead to 28-7, but the clubs played a scoreless second half.
Fremont slipped to 0-2 in the division and to 0-5 for the year with the loss. The Firebirds will try to get on the winning track when they host Lynbrook on Oct. 14, 7:30 p.m. The Vikings are 2-3 for the year following a 27-3 win over Cupertino last Friday in their league opener.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
