The girls volleyball teams of The King's Academy and Woodside Priory of Portola Valley made a shambles of the Central Coast Section's Division V tournament.

King's, seeded fifth, reached the championship match before bowing to Woodside Priory, the lowest seed in the six-team competition.

Both teams resume post-season play this week, as the top two CCS finishers in each division advance to this week's Northern California tournament.

Although they lost the title match, the Knights battled against Woodside. The victorious Panthers, who swept past No. 3 Pinewood of Los Altos and second seed St. Thomas More of San Jose, were challenged throughout the match against King's. The Panthers narrowly won the first two games, 25-23 and 25-22, before needing extra time to capture the third game 28-26.

The King's Academy, led by coach Beth Davidson and assistants Cora Bell and Shelley Gomes, entered the tournament with just an 11-14 record, but right away proved to be better than the record indicated. The Knights defeated No. 4 seed Valley Christian of Dublin in a first-round contest Nov. 13 at Santa Clara High.

In the next round, played at Valley Christian of San Jose, the Knights knocked off the top seed, Anzar of San Juan Bautista. Anzar, which entered the match with a glossy 22-12 record, fell behind two games to none against the Sunnyvale school, before rallying and forcing a decisive fifth game.

King's won 25-19 and 27-25, but Anzar answered in games three and four by winning 25-22 in both. The Knights prevailed 15-10 in the fifth game, earning a trip to the championship match.

Middle blocker Claire Westwood, outside hitter Sacha Bell and setter Alanna Musci are the Knights' only seniors. Other team members are juniors Brittany Gordon, Shannon Castillo, Taylor Scott and Meghan Hazlett, sophomore Katie Milligan and freshmen Natasha Bell and Hannah Hays.

King's football blossoms

In just two seasons of varsity competition, coach Ron Kellner's football program has had positive results.

After winning seven of 10 games in 2003, the Knights won five and tied one in nine games this season. Overall, they have posted a 12-6-1 record during the two campaigns, including some victories over larger, public schools. And the future looks bright, as only nine seniors dot the King's roster.

However, some of those seniors will leave big shoes to fill.

Running back and place kicker David Norris produced nearly half of the Knights' points this season, scoring 11 touchdowns and a two-point conversion to go along with his 18 PATs and three field goals. Norris also was the top ground gainer for the Knights with 791 yards.

Senior J.T. Martin finished as the top pass receiver with 18 catches for 220 yards.

Senior quarterback Tim Liu went down with a season-ending knee injury early in the campaign, but sophomores Steven Lim and Sam Sussman filled in admirably for the Knights.

Two-way linemen Jake Lassy and Kris Heenk will be graduating in the spring, as will linebacker Josh Montoro, who led the defense with 37 solo tackles. Montoro assisted on 55 other tackles and his total of 92 was just seven short of the team-leading total of his brother, junior Paul Montoro.

The younger Montoro is one of three junior defensive stars who will return for the Knights next fall. He was in on 99 tackles, including 29 solo stops. Nose guard Ji Jo, who led the Knights with seven quarterback sacks, was involved in 41 tackles. Another junior, linebacker Tim Svozil, was in on 47.

Other seniors who have helped get TKA's varsity program rolling are Tom Posey, Matt Massey and John Glasgow.