Photograph by Paul Meyers

The Homestead girls had reason to celebrate after opening the CCS Division II volleyball playoffs with a win over South San Francisco. But the Mustangs were eliminated a match later by Leland.

Matadors in CCS volleyball semi's

Mustangs lose to fall out of the playoffs

By DICK SPARRER

It was probably difficult for Monta Vista girls volleyball coaches Dawn Hill and Greg Dudy to determine just how good the Matadors would be in the 2001 season.

But if they were having any problems figuring it out, the Mats made the solution easy early on in the fall campaign.

The Matadors started the year in impressive fashion with a team championship at the Lynbrook Invitational. And they've been rolling along ever since.

The Mats rolled to a third-place finish in the rugged De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League, then rolled right on into the Central Coast Section Division I playoffs.

The rolling continues for the Matadors. They opened the tournament with an impressive 15-4, 15-8, 15-13 win over Mount Pleasant to push their season record to 19-13, and now they're cruising into a Thursday night confrontation with top-seeded Mitty.

Monta Vista will challenge the Monarchs (26-2) Nov. 15, 8 p.m., at Santa Clara High School in the CCS Division I semifinals. The winner will face the Live Oak (24-5)-San Benito (26-7) semi winner on Saturday, 7 p.m., at West Valley Community College for the CCS championship.

Leading Monta Vista into the semi's will be veterans Allison Scholl, Jen Clewett and Elizabeth Leigh. Rounding out the Monta Vista squad are Julia Briguns, Stephanie Young, Sheila Darbani, Stephanie Chu, Rekha Arakeri, Ani Bagdasarian, Kelly Gilbert, Stephanie Sakamoto, Antigone Skoulas, Tiffany Fong and Carrie Shiau.

Adrienne Hoopes drilled 24 kills, but the Homestead girls lost a heartbreaker to Leland to face elimination in the CCS Division II volleyball tournament.

The Mustangs had opened the tourney with a 15-13, 15-10, 13-15, 15-10 win over South San Francisco. Allison Wittrow pounded down 20 kills for the Mustangs in the win.

But Hoopes 24 kills weren't enough to lead the Mustangs past the Chargers last Saturday. Leland pulled out a 15-5, 15-10, 6-15, 15-6 win over Homestead to eliminate the Mustangs from the field.

Homestead finished the year with a solid 24-14 season record. The Mustangs had won a share of the championship in the El Camino Division of the SCVAL, posting an 11-3 record to tie Gunn for the title.

Lynbrook remains alive in the race for the CCS field hockey crown. The Vikings, who opened the tournament with 1-0 wins over Del Mar and Los Altos, will take their 10-4-4 record up against St. Francis (11-1-3) on Nov. 13, 1 p.m., at Los Gatos. The winner will meet the Mitty (11-2-4)-Los Gatos (13-2-2) winner on Saturday, 11 a.m., for the CCS title.

Jessica Bell knocked in a second-half goal off a Tiffany Ngo assist to lift the Vikes to a 1-0 win over Del Mar to open the tourney.

It was another Bell second-half goal, this time off an assist from Claire Johnson, that sparked the Vikes to a 1-0 win over Los Altos on Saturday.

In other action on Saturday, Cupertino lost a tough 2-1 nod to St. Francis to face elimination from the playoffs.

It marked the end of the season for the Pioneers, but what a season it was. Cupertino rolled to a 13-3 season record that included a 10-0 showing in the West Valley Division of the Blossom Valley Athletic League.

Helping the Pioneers win that division title were Sarah Abramovitz, Korin Bisch, Sheryl Cumine, Shannon Dudley, Meghan Fitzgerald, Katie French, Jessica Frink, Becky Fryer, Alisha Harada, Hillary Lawson, Allison Mine, Cristin Runfola, Zeena Salman and Tamara Struk.

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