Saratoga News

Sports

Norris leads Falcons to water polo win

By Mike Barnhart

The next stop for the Los Gatos High School boys and girls water polo teams is the Central Coast Section playoffs.

Coach Jessica Schroeder's girls and coach Steve Spencer's boys took care of business at the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division tournaments Nov. 1-3, earning automatic entry into the CCS championships, Nov. 6-17.

The girls, playing in their own pool, surprised Palo Alto in the semifinals 10-9 before bowing to Los Altos 11-8 in the championship game. Their second-place effort in last week's tournament, combined with a third-place finish in the division standings, earned a No. 7 seed in the 12-team Division I playoffs.

The Wildcats will put their 17-9 record on the line against No. 10 Salinas (16-11), Nov. 7, 5 p.m. The winner will advance to play defending champion Archbishop Mitty (20-6), the No. 2 seed, Nov. 10, 11:20 a.m., at Monta Vista.

Los Gatos' boys also reached the De Anza semifinals last week, but finished fourth. After an 11-6 defeat against top seed Palo Alto, the Wildcats lost to Mountain View 11-7 in the third-place game.

The Los Gatos boys are seeded No. 11 in Division I. Their first-round opponent will be No. 6 Serra (12-12), Nov. 6, 6:45 p.m., at Los Altos. If the Wildcats can knock off the Padres from San Mateo, they will earn a quarter-final date with No. 3 Leland, Nov. 10, 10 a.m., at Lynbrook.

Both De Anza tourneys were won by Los Altos teams, while Homestead squads were tops in the El Camino Division. According to SCVAL bylaws, four De Anza teams and one El Camino squad receive automatic berths in the CCS play-offs.

In last week's De Anza tourney, senior Sarah Safir scored four goals, leading Los Gatos past Paly in the semifinals.

Palo Alto beat Mountain View in the third-place game of the girls' tourney, and Gunn topped Saratoga 9-6 for fifth place. Fremont, which lost games to Gunn 9-6, Palo Alto 16-5 and Saratoga 10-6, finished seventh.

After a 6-3 loss to Mountain View in the first round, junior Alison Norris' four goals sparked Saratoga's victory over Fremont. Sophomore Courtney Chaffin and Hayes Hyde scored two goals apiece, while senior Kimi Hosseinian and junior Amanda Murabito each had one.

In the De Anza boys tournament, Los Gatos reached the semifinals by edging Monta Vista 8-7.

Monta Vista finished fifth in the tournament with a 9-5 win over Gunn.

A day earlier, the Mats beat Saratoga 13-6 in a consolation bracket game. They jumped in front of the Falcons 7-1 in the first quarter and stretched their advantage to 11-3 by halftime. Michael Huang scored two for the Falcons, and Tak Nakata and Kevin Cho added one apiece.

Saratoga finished seventh. After beginning the tourney with an 18-4 loss to Los Altos, the Falcons lost to Monta Vista and Gunn 13-7.