Rams Win: Willow Glen hurler Doug Dionne was the winning pitcher on Friday when the Rams pulled out a tight 3-1 win over Westmont.
Photograph by Jeff Kearns
Sarinana leads Rams to victories
Dionne tosses win over Westmont
By Dick Sparrer
Mark Sarinana played well enough last year to be named the boys volleyball junior of the year in the Mt. Hamilton Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.
A year later, not much has changed.
Sarinana's no longer a junior, but the Willow Glen sensation is still one of the top volleyball players in the Mt. Hamilton circuit, and he proved it again last week by leading the Rams to two more league wins.
Sarinana buried 16 kills to lead the Rams to an easy 15-1, 15-8, 15-5 victory over winless Prospect, and he came back with 16 more kills in a hard-earned 15-7, 15-11, 14-16, 15-5 win over Oak Grove two days later.
The Rams are now 8-3 in the Mt. Hamilton Division and 17-9 for the year, with just one match remaining in the regular season.
Willow Glen will wrap up the league season at home on May 2, hosting Leland at 7 p.m. Then it's on to the Central Coast Section playoffs for the Rams.
Sarinana leads the attack as an outside hitter for the Rams this spring. Middle blocker Kailen Yoippini and setter Jesse Cruz join co-captains Sarinana and Zach Loya as the leaders on the floor for Willow Glen.
Rams split
After a tough 10-0 loss to powerhouse Oak Grove to open play last week, the young Willow Glen baseball team fought back with a rousing 3-1 win over Westmont.
The win pulled the Rams into a virtual tie for sixth place in the division with the Warriors. Willow Glen is 2-12 in the division, just a half game behind Westmont (2-11). The Rams are trying to pass the Warriors to avoid finishing in the Mt. Hamilton cellar.
Junior Justin Johnson singled twice to knock in two runs and sophomore Chris Hobbs had two hits to lead the Rams to the win over the Warriors.
Willow Glen got doubles from soph Justin Jeffrey and Joe Sanchez, the only senior on the varsity squad this spring.
Junior hurler Doug Dionne picked the mound win as the Rams limited Westmont to just seven hits in the game. Dionne is now 2-4 for the year.
The Rams took the early lead with a run in the first, but Westmont tied it in the second. Willow Glen went back up on top with another marker in the third, then added an insurance run in the fifth.
The Rams, 5-15 for the year, need to win one of their last three games if they have hopes of climbing past Westmont and out of last place in the division.
Golfers win two
Juniors Ryan Radjabi and Will Howsman fired matching 36s on back-to-back days to lead the Willow Glen golf team to a pair of Santa Teresa Division wins last week.
Radjabi carded a three-over par 38 at the Santa Teresa Golf Course to pace the Rams to a 216-267 win over James Lick.
Later in the week, Howsman fired a two-over 36 at San Jose Municipal Golf Course to drive Willow Glen to a 226-263 win over the Comets.
The two wins helped the Rams improve to 10-4 in the division and 11-5 for the year.
Rams blanked
The Willow Glen girls softball team was blanked twice last week, falling 8-0 to Del Mar and 10-0 to Valley Christian.
Christina Gonzalez doubled for the Rams in the loss to the Dons, but Willow Glen was no-hit by the Warriors.
Wang wins
William Wang pulled out a 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 win at No. 1 singles, but the Willow Glen boys tennis team lost a 5-2 nod to Westmont last week to slip to 3-8 in the West Valley Division.
Double winners
Courtney Livak and Kelsey Giambruno were each double winners, but the Willow Glen girls swimming team dropped a 114-64 decision to Lincoln in Santa Teresa Division action last week.
Livak took the 100-yard freestyle in 57.60 and the 100 backstroke in 1:06.65, and Giambruno was first in the 200 individual medley in 2:43.24 and the 100 breaststroke in 1:21.26.
The loss left the Rams 2-5 in the division.
The Willow Glen boys, meanwhile, lost 106-43 to Lincoln. Kyle Buchanan was the lone winner for the Rams in the meet, finishing first in the 100 butterfly in 1:06.59.
One of three
The Presentation girls softball team could manage just one win in three games last week, splitting with Oak Grove and losing to Santa Teresa.
Nicole Rousseve flipped a five-hitter to lift the Panthers to a 4-2 win over the Eagles in the middle of the week. Rousseve evened her pitching record at 2-2 with the win.
Senior Tina Renner had two hits to knock in two runs for the Panthers in the win.
The clubs were locked in a 1-1 tie after two innings before the Eagles went up 2-1 with a run in the third. But Presentation tied it with a run in the fourth, then won it with two in the fifth.
The Panthers slipped to 4-7 in the division and to 8-13 for the year when they lost 7-2 to Santa Teresa on Friday.
Doubles by Ashley Callaway and Rousseve sparked the five-hit attack for Presentation.
The Saints unloaded for five runs in the first and never looked back on the road to the victory.
The Panthers could manage just two hits, one of them a double by Shannon Linerud, in an 8-0 loss to Oak Grove to open the week.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
