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In recent years you could take Foothill, Amador Valley and De La Salle, mix them up and realistically had a chance to pick the East Bay Athletic League winner.
San Ramon Valley and Granada could upset the applecart as well, but as far as teams chasing the boys’ volleyball title, that was it.
This year De La Salle has lived up to its reputation in the early part of the year. The Spartans have raced out to an 11-1 mark, falling only to Sanger, a powerhouse from the Central Valley, as the team gets ready to head to Hawaii for a tournament this week.
But before they head across the Pacific Ocean, De La Salle has some business to tend to in the form of the Dublin boys’ team.
The Gaels started 14-1, with the only loss coming in a 2-1 tournament loss to NorCal power Harbor of Santa Cruz. (Harbor is 16-1 this year and ranked No. 21 in the nation at this point.) Dublin is 4-0 in the league, with wins over both Amador Valley and Foothill.
The game is set for Tuesday night (March 25) at De La Salle at 6 p.m.
Amador Valley still is formidable at 7-4, with two of the losses to the Spartans and the Gaels. The Dons’ loss to Dublin was a 3-2 thriller that could have gone either way.
The Dons have a big one this week — actually two — as they host Foothill on Tuesday, then make the trip to Dublin for a rematch with the Gaels.
Foothill has come out slower than normal, but the Falcons are still 9-6 and are 3-2 in EBAL play. The team has uncharacteristically dropped two of its last three games, falling 3-1 to both Dublin and San Ramon Valley.
After Amador this week, the Falcons then travel for the second meeting with Granada. After falling 3-1 to Foothill to open the season, the Matadors have gone 13-4 and are playing some solid volleyball.
Besides Foothill, Granada lost to De La Salle (3-1) and San Ramon Valley (3-1).
San Ramon Valley is 11-4 and was 3-0 in the league until just dropping a 3-1 final to De La Salle.
Livermore has quietly had a good season, standing at 11-8 overall and 2-3 in the league. The losses have come to De La Salle (3-0), San Ramon Valley (3-2) and Amador (3-0).
Overall, the EBAL is still one of the top leagues in Northern California and each night of league play, there is at least one big match on the schedule.
If you like good volleyball, make it a point to get out and catch a match. Check our “What to Watch” feature in the Tri-Valley Preps Playbook newsletter each week for where and when the matches are being played.
Dublin Distance Festival
The Dublin Distance Festival took place this past weekend on the track at Dublin High School on Friday and Saturday, bringing over 4,000 athletes from 225 schools, in what’s become one of the top high school track meets in Northern California.
The weekend consisted of distance races of 800, 1,600, and 3,200 meters as well as an invitational style 4×800 meters relay on Friday night and a Distance Medley Relay to cap off Saturday evening.
Here are the top performances from EBAL athletes:
* Ava Padilla (Monte Vista): Was sixth in the girls’ 800 with a 2:13.80 where the winner was Hanne Thomsen of Montgomery in 2:10.18; Padilla was also ninth in the girls’ 1,600 with a time of 5:10.74. The best mark was Elanor Raker from Galena (Reno) 4:52.58.
* Sade Bumpus (Granada) was 12th in the girls’ 3,200 with a mark of 10:54.46. Thomsen was the winner with a 10:21.77.
* Boys’ 3,200: Arrin Sagiraju (Dougherty Valley) was sixth in 9:04.76 and Trey Caldwell (De La Salle) was seventh in 9:11.26. The winner was Eli Fitchen-Young of Santa Cruz with an 8:56.43.
* Dublin 4×800 relay: The team of Tristan Gan, Jorge Martinez-Hernandez, Srikar Janyavula and Akash Jain were fourth in 8:05.94. The winning team came from Bellarmine who had a 7:58.28.
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.
