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The sensational season that was East Bay Athletic League girls’ volleyball concluded this past weekend, netting the EBAL one state title and one runner-up.
Both teams finished with the CIF NorCal championships as well.
San Ramon Valley (31-9) brought home the D-II CIF championship with a 3-1 win over Centennial on Saturday night.
The Wolves got huge matches from seniors Lucy Chertock (19 kills) and Ellie Hunt (16 kills). Kate Stern had 42 assists in the championship match.
Chertock finished the year with 426 kills, with Hunt ending with 357. Sophia Vella (Sr.) had 183 kills and junior Jenna Hunt had 162 kills.
Foothill (30-11) fell 3-0 to two-time runner-up Palos Verdes on Friday night but the Falcons were playing the match with heavy hearts following the unexpected passing of the father of Foothill Dusty Collins the night before the game.
In the finals Palo Verdes was led by Stanford commit Kaci Demaria, who had 24 kills.
The Falcons got seven kills each from Kaycie Burdick and Lulu Hoenninger.
Burdick was the Player of the Year in the EBAL, finishing the season with an amazing 602 kills. As good as she is in volleyball, she’s better in softball and has committed to the University of Washington for softball.
Sophomore Kait Vogel — one of four Foothill players to finish with over 200 kills on the season — finished the year with 271 kills.
Hoenninger (246), Sophia Burdick (230) and Paige Nelson (180) round out the top hitters for Foothill. Freshman Olivia So led the Falcons with 420 digs.
NCS football
Three EBAL teams kept the ball rolling in their respective divisions — with De La Salle, San Ramon Valley and Amador Valley playing for North Coast Section titles.
De La Salle actually won the Open Division title with a 10-7 win over Pittsburg on a rainy and windy night at Diablo Valley College.
San Ramon Valley also survived, edging Cardinal Newman 7-0 following a fourth quarter touchdown for the Wolves.
It was a 14-yard score from Sammy Avalos that pushed the Wolves into the D-I title game.
The game is set for 7 p.m. this Friday at Diablo Valley College where they will face the Pittsburg team that just pushed De La Salle to the brink and now drops down to the D-I final.
In the D-II finals, No. 2 Amador Valley will face No. 4 Bishop O’Dowd who advanced to the finals by upsetting top seeded Liberty 23-15 last Friday.
The game is set for 7 p.m. this Friday at Dublin High.
O’Dowd beat Monte Vista 31-28 in the first round.
Amador fell 35-28 to Liberty early in the year when the Dons were battling the injury bug.
The Dragons present a balanced attack with quarterback Devin Wilson having thrown for 1,698 yards with 19 touchdowns with three interceptions. University of Washington commit Deji Ajose has been the top receiver with 43 catches for 744 yards.
When it’s time to run the ball, the Dragons turn to Saliou Sow who has 1,264 yards and 12 touchdowns.
This year has been all about the excellence of quarterback Tristan Ti’a and receiver Anthony Harrington as the two have been destroying opposing defenses.
But last week in the win over Windsor in a rainstorm, the Dons got a rushing performance they have been searching for all season.
Behind the power game of Ismael Duenas and Vince Maiorana, the Dons ran for over 300 yards in the win.
It was crucial to the Dons on a night made for running the ball and with a top receiver out.
With Amador this year it has been a case of, “You know what we are going to do, and you still can’t stop it.”
NCS cross country
It was a great day for the EBAL at the meet at Hayward High on Nov. 23, with multiple teams and individual teams qualifying for the CIF State meet.
The state event will be held Saturday (Nov. 30) at Woodword Park in Fresno.
In the D-I boys’ event, the EBAL went 1-2-3 with Dublin (31 points), Dougherty Valley (52), and California (69) taking the top three spots.
Arrin Sagiraju of Dougherty Valley took the individual title with a 3-mile time of 15 minutes, 49.4 seconds. Eshaan Hassain of California was second at 16:05.0. Third and fourth went to Justin Fong (16:09.5) and Lucas Lipman (16:13.2) both from Dublin, keying the Gaels’ bid for the team championship.
Other EBAL individuals in the top 10 were Edmundas Rosicker of Dougherty Valley (6th, 16:19.6), Daniel Santhipillai of Dublin (7th, 16:19.9), Zayaan Lunani of Dublin (8th, 16:36.4), and Tristan Gan of Dublin (9th, 16:46.2).
In the girls’ D-I race, Dougherty Valley was third behind Berkeley and Castro Valley, getting a spot in state.
Carina Nottingham of Berkeley was the individual winner at a time of 18:19.3.
EBAL girls that advanced to state as individuals were Emily Bellinger of Cal (5th, 19:48.4), Melia Prenton of Dublin (8th, 19:16.09), Laasy Balupari of Dublin (11th, 19:39.9), and Kiran Nayyar of Dublin (19:49.6).
In the D-II race, College Park was first with 60 points, followed by De La Salle (67), Amador Valley (76), and Granada (96). All three EBAL teams earned berth at state as a team.
Individually, De La Salle’s Trey Caldwell was the winner at 15:26.2.
Individuals that qualified for state, not advancing on a winning team, were Connor Buscho of Foothill (8th, 16:19.5), Owen Brandeis of Monte Vista (11th, 16:27.6) and fellow Mustang Mateo Cafaro (16th, 16:42.7).
In the girls’ D-11 race, Monte Vista took the team title with 44 points with Redwood just back at 46 points, and San Ramon Valley collecting the final team spot with 71 points.
Alexandra Powell of Monte Vista took the individual title with a time of 17:55.3.
Sade Bumpus of Granada was second at 17:56.7.
EBAL runners not on advancing teams that qualified for state were Macy Mullins of Foothill (9th, 18:50.5), Abbie Stein of Granada (12th, 19:01.1), and Susie Beamon (14th, 19:09.9).
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for the Pleasanton Weekly. This column originally appeared in Tri-Valley Preps Playbook, a weekly sports e-newsletter published by Embarcadero Media Foundation.
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