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In an absolute battle, the Amador Valley girls’ water polo team pulled out a come-from-behind win against rival Foothill last week.
On Senior Night for Foothill, the Falcons came out and took a 4-2 halftime lead behind goals from Camryn Hobizal (2), Lindsey Locatelli and Emmy Tsao.
Maya Amiel and Olivia Ritter scored the first-half goals for the Dons.
In the second half, it was all about Amador super sophomore Susan Swyers as she racked up four goals, three assists, eight steals and drew two ejections to lead the Dons’ turnaround in securing the 9-5 victory.
Deepika Suresh was strong in the goal, allowing only one Foothill goal in the second half. Another sophomore, Suresh had eight saves and three steals.
Valentina Avalos had the lone second-half goal for the Falcons.
Kate Hopkins also had a goal and three assists for the Dons.
“We’ve had some great success the last two seasons with deep runs in the playoffs and a wealth of talent,” Amador coach Tim Reilly said. “I knew graduating seven seniors the last two seasons would bring new challenges. Those are big shoes to fill with a team that has eight new varsity players. Rebuilding years in high school can be tough, but we battled through injuries and the inexperience that comes from a young team. I’m so proud of these girls. They came so far in 12 weeks.”
It was also a game of mixed emotions for Reilly.
“I’ve coached most of the Foothill girls on our club team, so it was great to see them out there playing hard too,” Reilly said. “There’s a side of me that wants to see them do well, but in the end, I’ve got the purple shirt on.”
Foothill volleyball
After going undefeated in East Bay Athletic League play, followed by a pair of wins to take the EBAL playoffs, the Falcons were given the No. 1 seed in the North Coast Section Division I playoffs.
After a first-round bye, Foothill opened play last Saturday.
The Falcons faced Vintage of Napa in the first round after the Crushers advanced with a 3-2 thriller over Castro Valley.
It didn’t take long to figure out how this match would turn out, as the Falcons ran off the first 16 points in the first set on the way to a 25-6, 25-9, 25-17 win.
Vintage served to open the match and after Foothill got the point, the Falcons ran off 15 more points under the serves of freshman Kait Vogel. She finished the night with 23 service points, six of which were aces.
Other highlights came from senior Maisha Sharma (20 service points, 9 aces), senior Katie Salonga (20 assists, 2 aces) and senior Paige Bennett (12 kills).
The win moves the Falcons into the semifinals where they will face Amador Valley on Wednesday at Foothill. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
It will be the fourth time this year the two teams have met. Amador gave the Falcons their only loss, beating them 2-0 in an early season tournament.
Since then, Foothill has beaten Amador 3-2 and 3-0 during the EBAL regular season.
Amador tennis
The Dons kept their postseason chances alive with a nice series of wins.
In beating Livermore 8-1, Amador’s wins included Dani Kaur and Lanie Win, and the doubles teams of Bella Cheng/Alayna West and Priscilla Lam/Rhea Anand.
In a 7-1 win over California, wins came from Montana Parkinson-Lubold, Neha Reddy, Aashvi Geddam, Chloe Fan and the doubles teams of Aditi Deshpande/West, Cheng/Avital Belau and Ella Kuipers/Anand.
Finally, the Dons closed the season with a 6-3 win over Carondelet.
Wins came from Kaur, Parkinson-Lubold, Neha Reddy, Geddam, Deshpande/West and Cheng/Kuipers.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
