Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Photograph by Grant Wernick

Los Gatos volleyball standout Grant Schlink keeps the ball alive as the Cats rally for a win over Valley Christian of Dublin in the first round of the CCS playoffs.

Gatos gunning for CCS title

Volleyball team trying for repeat

By Dick Sparrer

Los Gatos volleyballers had to wait until Tuesday night to find out if they'd be playing again on Thursday.

The Wildcats opened the Central Coast Section boys' volleyball playoffs with two wins last week to advance to the semifinals on May 19, 8 p.m., at Monterey at Santa Clara High.

The winner of that Tuesday match moved on to the CCS championship match on May 21, 7 p.m., against the winner of the Bellarmine-Homestead semi.

Los Gatos, the defending CCS champion, hoped to return to that title round and win another section crown.

Gatos opened the playoffs with a lopsided 15-1, 15-1, 15-4 win over Valley Christian of Dublin, then came back with an easy 15-2, 15-6, 15-11 win over Del Mar in the quarterfinals.

Monterey, meanwhile, went four games to beat Valley Christian of San Jose 15-5, 15-10, 12-15, 15-5, then went four more to beat Fremont 15-8, 15-9, 7-15, 16-14.

Los Gatos entered the semi's with an impressive 35-1 record. The Cats were 14-0 in the league season.

Talented senior Keith Busam led the Los Gatos squad into action in the semifinals.

Eastman, Lux star

Alix Eastman and Danielle Lux each starred for the Los Gatos girls' swimming team at the CCS championships held recently at Independence High School.

Eastman, a sophomore, finished fourth in the 500-yard freestyle in 5:05.55 and was fifth in the 200 free in 1:54.47, and Lux, a senior, was fourth in the 100 breast stroke in 1:07.33. Lux also made it to the consolation finals in the 100 free, finishing 13th in 55.66.

The two teamed with sophomore Megan Greenwood and senior Rachel Stratton to finish seventh in the 200 medley relay in 1:54.85.

Gatos also placed in the girls' consolation finals in the 400 free relay. Eastman, Lisa Cristol, Stratton and Lux finished 15th in 3:47.63.

The Los Gatos girls ran up 76 points to finish 10th overall at CCS, just four points behind ninth-place Monta Vista.

Senior Justin Greenwood made it to the consolation finals in the boys' 50 free. Greenwood was 14th overall in 22.48.

Junior diver Shea Nyquist finished 12th overall for the Los Gatos boys at CCS.

Wallis wins CCS

Marcia Wallis of Los Gatos fired a five-over-par 78 at the Rancho Cañada Golf Club in Carmel to win the Central Coast Section girls' golf championship.

Wallis, a junior, will now advance to the Northern California championships that were to be held Monday at the Sunset Whitney Country Club in Rocklin.

It marks the second straight year that Wallis has won the CCS title and advanced to NorCal. She lost the Northern California championship in a playoff last year.

Matt Cuevas of Los Gatos had finished fifth in the boys' CCS tournament a day earlier on the same course. Cuevas carded a two-over-75 at Rancho Cañada.

Cristen, not Kristen

Cristen McClenathen was a member of the Los Gatos girls' mile relay that placed sixth in the track finals in the De Anza Division of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League. We misspelled her name in last week's article.

[ Back to Contents Page | Los Gatos Weekly-Times Home Page | Archives ]