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The Foothill High girls’ volleyball team stormed into the North Coast Section Division I playoffs with a pair of wins the week of Oct. 26.
The top-seeded Falcons, who are forced to play their home games at Amador Valley because of construction of their gym, faced No. 16 Rancho Cotate in the first round and beat them 25-4, 25-21, 25-11.
The highlights came from Ilayda Caglar (15 service points with 6 aces, 11 kills), Shreya Patel (18 assists, 6 service points), Addie Boeschenstein (8 kills), Sahej Toor (6 kills at .750 clip, 1 block) and Olivia So (13 digs, and a perfect passing rating on the night).
That put the Falcons in the quarterfinals where they beat Bishop O’Dowd 25-16, 20-25, 25-17, 25-19.
This time, great play came from Kait Vogel (20 digs, 15 service points, 12 kills), Makenzie Bulaon (24 assists, 17 digs, 8 service points), Sewa Adesuyi-fasuyi (8 kills, 2 blocks), Emily Evans (5 kills, 2 blocks) and Ale Sioco (13 digs, 2 aces).
The Falcons were set to play Las Lomas in the semifinals on Wednesday at Amador again at 7 p.m. with results pending as of press time. If they win, they play for the D-I title on Saturday and if they lose, they play for third place and a spot in the CIF NorCal tournament.
Foothill boys’ water polo
The Falcons closed the regular season with two big wins to finish with a 17-4 record, earning the No. 6 seed in the NCS D-II playoffs.
On Oct. 20, the Falcons trailed rival Amador Valley 4-2 at the half but outscored the Dons in the second half to get the big 9-7 win.
Charlie Orr had three goals to pace the Falcons, with William Orr and Alex Saroukhanoff had two goals each. Ethan Atkinson and Jeffrey Jackman had one each to round out the scoring for Foothill.
A week later the Falcons faced Dougherty Valley – another NCS team – and trailed 5-2 at the break. The Foothill coaching staff made some adjustments at the half and this time the Falcons outscored their opponents 7-3 in the second half and finished with a 9-8 win.
The Orrs had three goals each, with Saroukhanoff, Kai Culver and Ivan Khatuntsev each getting one goal each.
The Falcons were set to open NCS play on Wednesday against No. 11 Alhambra in a 6:30 p.m. game at Granada, with results pending as of press time.
NCS flag football
Amador Valley is the top seed in the D-I playoffs and the Dons played just like that, easily winning their first two games.
In the opening round, Amador knocked off No. 16 San Leandro by a 33-8 final score. In the quarterfinals, the Dons took on No. 8 College Park and came away with a 36-20 win.
That set up Wednesday night’s semifinals where the Dons were set to host No. 4 Castro Valley, with results pending. The two teams met earlier this year, with Castro Valley leading 12-0 before Amador rallied for the 19-18 overtime win.
If Amador wins on Wednesday, they will face the winner of the No. 2 Liberty hosting No. 3 San Ramon Valley on Saturday.
The Dons and the Wolves met in an epic contest earlier this year, with Amador rallying to score on the final play of the game for a 13-12 win.
Foothill was in the tournament as the No. 15 seed and had to travel to Brentwood to face Liberty. The Falcons put up a spirited battle but fell 27-14 to the talented Liberty team.
California fell 35-6 to San Ramon Valley in the first round. Granada was the No. 13 seed and lost 26-0 to Castro Valley. Finally, Livermore was seeded No. 9 and lost to No. College Park 27-12.
Editor’s note: Dennis Miller is a contributing sports writer for Embarcadero Media Foundation’s East Bay Division. To contact him about his Pleasanton Preps column, email acesmag@aol.com.
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