"The JV girls had an amazing season," praised Fremont coach Steven Puccinelli, following the squad's undefeated league season and 19-3 overall mark this fall.

An "amazing core of sophomores," including top scorers Annie Hughes and Elizabeth Thomas and goaltender Isabelle Heye, led the Firebirds to the title in the El Camino Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, Puccinelli said.

Hughes (41 goals) and Thomas (36) alone more than doubled the offensive production of the entire 2003 team. Heye dominated the defensive end, while establishing a team record for allowing the fewest goals in a season.

"Isabelle often made two or three consecutive saves, bailing out the team," Puccinelli explained.

Another sophomore team leader was Amy Lindsey, the only JV player who picked up any varsity playing time this season.

Rahela Merchant and Sara Decastro were other 10th graders that provided leadership for the team's five strong freshmen—Julia Sterling, Abby McNeil, Chelsea Lofland, Nicole Sutherlin and Sarah Lofgren.

McNeil and Sterling played well offensively and defensively, Puccinelli said. Sterling scored at least one goal in each game of the league tournament.

Pioneers run to ninth

Not even a three-hour car ride could curb Cupertino cross country coach Paul Armstrong's enthusiasm. Several hours after the Pioneers captured ninth place in the girls Division II at the California State meet Nov. 27 in Fresno, Armstrong's giddiness still was apparent.

"We did great," Armstrong gushed, "considering where we came from—which was nowhere! Cupertino [High] had never sent a cross country team to the state meet."

Back in 1981, a Cupertino girls team placed sixth at the Central Coast Section meet, a school record until the current group of Pioneers finished third behind Archbishop Mitty and Los Gatos at CCS on Nov. 13.

In Saturday's race, on a rain-dampened, 3.1-mile course in Fresno's Woodward Park, the Pioneers attained both goals that Armstrong had set for them the previous day. Cupertino achieved a top 10 finish and beat both Mitty (11th) and Los Gatos (12th) in the process.

Led by sophomore Julianne Hansen and freshman Sumika Shiokawa, the Pioneers' top five places added to 271 points. Mitty finished with 317 points, six better than Los Gatos. College Park of Pleasant Hill was the team champion with 118 points. Third-place Serrano High of Phelan (near Palm Springs) featured the individual winner, freshman Kauren Tarver (17:48).

After picking up the final results from meet officials about a half an hour after the race, the usually-reserved Armstrong celebrated. "I was jumping up and down," Armstrong said. "No one has seen me do that."

Hansen, who ran 19:40 to place 70th out of 186 runners a year ago as an individual, improved 36 seconds to earn 28th place.

In the scoring involving just the 23 teams vying for the State Division II championship, Hansen was 16th, Shiokawa (19:10) was 21st and junior Kimberly Chew (19:45) was 43rd.

In girls Division V, The King's Academy finished 11th in the team standings behind a solid showing by sisters Kristen and Jessica Butelo. Kristen, a sophomore, was 27th in 20:35 with Jessica, a junior, 58th in 21:20.

Fremont junior Kevin Schneider (16:29) was 52nd out of 197 Division I boys.

Fremont wins two

Gearing up for its own basketball tournament, the Fremont girls basketball team opened the 2004­05 season by winning its first two games.

The Firebirds tuned up for this week's eight-team, three-day event, Nov. 30­Dec. 2, by posting road victories at Scotts Valley and Mt. Pleasant of San Jose. They opened with a 48-44 triumph against Scotts Valley on Nov. 19, then rallied from a nine-point halftime deficit four nights later to win 46-43 at Mount Pleasant.

Carol Hoang and Victoria Cunha, two of seven returning players for coach John Wells, were the top point producers for the Firebirds. Hoang, a 5-foot-4 sophomore, had 10 points and seven assists in the season opener and 11 points and nine assists at Mt. Pleasant. Cunha, a 5-foot-6 junior, registered 18 points (including four three-pointers) and nine assists in the two games.

Another veteran, 5-foot-7 senior forward Ally Lang, accounted for 14 points and 14 rebounds during the two games. Also returning for Fremont are sisters Kelly and Alison Bushnell, 5-foot-2 junior guard Marissa Cabana and 5-foot-5 senior Jessica Svoboda.

New to the team this year are 5-foot-8 seniors Page Robinson and Amy Wanninger, juniors Marylin Avila (5-foot-8 forward) and Carolina Michel (5-foot-6 guard), 5-foot-4 sophomore guard Kristal Sana and two freshmen, 5-foot-10 Natalie Mead and 5-foot-6 guard Ailyn Burgos.

The Bushnells, 5-foot-11 senior Kelly and 5-foot-8 sophomore Alison, combined for 15 rebounds, in the Firebirds' comeback against Mt. Pleasant. After the Cardinals built a 28-19 lead in the first half, Fremont went ahead by outscoring the hosts 15-5 in the third quarter. Sana scored nine points and A. Bushnell eight against Mt. Pleasant. Mead grabbed six rebounds in the win.

Mead had five points and five rebounds against Scotts Valley, and Avila pulled down seven rebounds.

The Firebirds opened their tourney on Nov. 30 against Gunn in the feature 8 p.m. game. Other first round match-ups were Cupertino-Saratoga, Willow Glen­Wilcox, and Homestead-Mercy of San Francisco. The championship game is set for 8 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 2.

Caballero honored

Nicole Caballero, a center forward on the Homestead field hockey team this fall, recently was honored as Sophomore of the Year by the Blossom Valley Athletic League's West Valley Division coaches.

Caballero also was picked to the West Valley Division's all-league first team. Two other Homestead players, senior Megan Brady and junior Courtney Gosnell, were selected to the second team.

Kim 16th in state

Fremont senior Naomi Kim finished tied for 16th out of 48 girls at the state golf tournament, played Nov. 16 at the Red Hill Country Club in Rancho Cucamonga. Kim qualified for the California Interscholastic Federation tournament by placing third in both the Central Coast Section and CIF Northern California events earlier in the month.