Volleyball

Tracy 3, Weston Ranch 0

The Lady Bulldogs claimed a win in their first match of the season at Weston Ranch High School with three sets in a row, 25-23, 25-18, 25-22. Head coach Mahina Tankersley said she has a relatively young team, but the girls pass well and have a lot of energy on the court.

“We played very well as a team,” she said. “We have only three returning varsity players, and they’re all seniors,” she said, adding that she brought up several freshman and sophomore players to fill out her roster.

Leaders on the court Tuesday included Haley Ochoa with four aces and three kills, and Lynsie Zellmer with five kills and three aces. Angela Mariani contributed six kills and Jenny Barwig provided 18 assists. Briana Aldridge contributed eight digs.

The Tracy sophomore volleyball team won its game in three sets, with scores of 14-25, 25-20, 15-4. The freshman team lost 15-25, 20-25.

Tracy plays next on Thursday when Sierra High comes to town, and on Saturday will join in the Wolf Pack Classic at West High.

Kimball 3, Millennium 0

The Jaguars hosted the Falcons on Monday in their California Interscholastic Federation Foundation game. It won’t count as a regular-season game, but the gate fees support CIF’s athletic scholarships, and it was a chance for each team to face another team for the first time this season. Kimball won it in three sets, 25-20, 25-14, 25-18.

The Jaguars took the advantage in the second set on aces from Megan Bhathal, Sara Searle and Jhoann Romero. Millennium kept the third set close until Romero came to the service line and helped stretch Kimball's 2-point lead to a 10-point lead. Millennium’s Riley Buchanan served a series to help her team start to catch up, but Kimball was strong at the net, with blocks from Krista Parker helping keep the Jaguars in the lead.

Coaches said that after a tentative start the teams got over their nerves and into competition.

“I saw lots more improvement than I expected,” Kimball coach Mila Iosefa said, adding that his team has learned to work together to cope with the unexpected. “In practice we were working on free balls, and that really came together tonight. It’s a good thing to see with these young kids, especially those in their first year.”

Millennium coach Therese Slade said her team’s efforts in practice translated well on the court.

“What we’ve been doing in practice is just the fundamentals, starting from the beginning: bump, pass, set or hit,” she said. “Of course the nerves were there, but as soon as they started they did very well.”

Kimball junior libero Jhoann Romero said that seeing the effectiveness of teamwork is encouraging for the Jaguars.

“In the end we all pulled together, and that really gives us a kick-start. We can all see that we can do it. We’re learning how to work together and it’s a new year.”

Millennium senior setter Riley Buchanan said that a closer team this year has accelerated the Falcons’ progress in advance of the season.

“We fix our mistakes faster. We see what we do wrong and we try to fix it, and we support each other.”

West 3, Manteca 2

West and Manteca traded sets back and forth on Monday in their CIF Foundation game at West High. West won it 25-21, 21-25, 25-18, 22-25, 15-11. Team leaders for West were seniors Nikki Marquez and Ana Green, Marquez with seven aces and five kills, and green with four aces, seven kills and seven blocks. Junior Miranda Gannon contributed eight kills.

West clung to a slim advantage in the fourth set, but hitting errors cost the Wolf Pack toward the end and gave the Buffaloes a chance to move ahead. The fifth set was also close until Melissa Villacarte came to the service line for a series of points, with Gannon contributing a couple well-placed shots to put West in the lead.

West coach Christine Toon said she has a collection of good athletes, but it’s still a young team.

“I’m just trying to pull out their best,” she said, adding that this was the first time West has gone against another team this season. “They’ll get the hang of it, and I’ll move people around.”

Senior outside hitter Nikki Marquez said that it’s clear the Manteca team had a height advantage over West, but the Wolf Pack girls will compensate.

“We try to pick that up with our passing,” she said, adding that accurate shots are a must as the team looks forward to the season. “I’m hoping our hitting is on-point.”

Senior middle blocker Lisia Tangi is one of the taller players, and contributed a series of blocks and kills in the fourth set. She said that the team will get better as it learns to communicate, and she hopes to contribute by increasing the accuracy of her shots.

Soccer

Tracy 4, Kimball 0

Tracy High’s soccer team took a 4-0 win in the first of two cross-town matches this week at Kimball High. The teams played in the tall grass behind the school while finishing touches are put on the track in the school’s stadium, which will still be the regular venue for Jaguar soccer games.

Tracy coach Phil Kalis said that his team came into the game with a specific strategy, and executed its game plan to the letter.

Tracy senior midfielder Abram Diaz said it was a matter of getting players in position and making accurate passes, which worked especially well in the second half when Tracy controlled the ball from the outside.

“Definitely the more games we play we click a lot better and our passes are on-target. We know where our players are going to be,” he said. “Once we receive the ball we don’t have to look for them.”

Tracy took a 2-0 lead in the first half, with goals from Eric Bui in the third and the 20th minutes. Abram scored his first goal of the season 19 minutes into the second half on a shot up the middle and into the right corner, and three minutes later Tracy’s Kyle Devlin scored on a penalty kick.

In spite of the loss Kimball Coach Ron Hattley said he was glad to see his team compete with Tracy. Hattley said it would have been an even game if the Jaguars had not missed some opportunities to score in the first half. He added that Kimball’s defense will need to improve by the time league play starts. Otherwise he felt his team competed well.

“It’s a good introduction for one thing, because we have three players that can break through a zone and dribble, and we have to learn to play with them,” he said. “I like the fact that we can play at this speed. There are little nuances to the game that they’ll have to pick up.”

Kimball junior forward Justin Hopkins said that his team’s control on offense was encouraging.

“We had most of the possession of the ball and controlled it most of the game. We just need to finish our chances,” he said.

Joseph Yun, junior striker for Kimball, added that control of the middle of the field will be a priority for the team’s future if the Jaguars are to stop teams like Tracy.

Tracy plays again Wednesday at home against West. Game time is 5 p.m. for the freshman-sophomore teams and 6:45 for the varsity. Kimball plays next at Stagg in Stockton on Tuesday.

Tracy’s freshman-sophomore team (2-0) beat Kimball 6-1. Cristian Ramos scored two goals for Tracy, and David Rodriguez, Alejandro Noriega, Miguel Martin and Derek Paris all scored for Tracy.

Millennium 8, Rite of Passage 1

The Falcon soccer team expects that a win in the season opener will signal the direction for the rest of their season. The Falcons beat Sierra Ridge/Rite of Passage 8-1 at the Tracy Learning Center on Tuesday.

Head coach Daniel Espinoza said that it’s mostly the same team that went to the Sac-Joaquin Section Division VII semifinals last year. He said that the team, minus a few of last year’s seniors, and plus a group of talented freshmen, showed on Tuesday that it is ready to take a step forward this year.

“This is a team sport, and these guys are coming together quicker than I thought,” Espinoza said. “It’s a good team. I believe this is our year.”

Senior Jake Thornton, who had been on the team for its first two years and attended another school for his junior year, said he’s glad to be part of this year’s Falcon team.

“We have a solid center: solid center-forward, solid center-mid and solid center-defender. That sets up the backbone to our team,” he said. “One of our strengths is possession of the ball. We’re good at keeping it and not giving up possession so easily.”

On Tuesday they faced a hard-charging ROP team, so the Falcons had to keep the ball moving and use their speed on the field to keep control of the game.

“We don’t take too many touches,” Thornton said. “A lot of times we just receive it and then lay it off to the next player, which keeps the other team moving around and opens up spaces for the game, and creates passing lanes.”

The Falcons had a 4-0 lead at the half. Junior Jeff Pereira scored the first two and Steven Pina scored the third. Pereira scored again on Malwand Gulham’s cross shot from the left as the first half came to a close.

Thornton scored on a shot up the middle 18 minutes into the second half, and set up the next score two minutes later on a corner kick from the left, which found Jordan Holden right in front of the net. Holden’s header shot went right into the ROP goalkeeper, bounced back, and Daniel Yanez was right there to kick in the rebound.

Thornton scored again on a shot up the middle 27 minutes into the half. ROP got its only goal five minutes later, and Thornton scored one more on a cross from the right that hit the left post and bounced across the goal line.

Millennium plays its next game on Thursday in Groveland against Tioga, the team that has knocked the Falcons out of the playoffs in 2008 and 2009.

Sierra 1, West 0

The West High soccer team’s first game of the season Monday was a close back-and-forth match at West High’s soccer field. Both teams had the offensive and mid-field speed and control to get the ball close, but defense proved to be the key on both sides of the field.

West played its first game on the soccer field behind the school, which is a change from the last couple of years, when all games were in Steve Lopez Stadium. West will still use the stadium for many of its home games but West coach Joe Perry said the team rarely gets to practice on the artificial turf, and prefers to play on the natural grass where players have their daily workouts.

On Monday teams also had the wind as a factor, with West having the wind at its back in the first half and Sierra having the wind behind it in the second. Coach Nate Perry said that he was glad just to get in all 20 players, each for 20 minutes or more.

“We saw some really good things, and we tried out a lot of stuff that we wanted to see,” he said. “We got a lot of chances and it’s something we can build upon.”

Navid Arghandiwal said that the Wolf Pack team will get better now that it’s measuring up against other teams.

“We should have made more goals but we missed a lot,” he said, adding that a few more pre-league games will help players improve communication. “I think we’ll get there by the there by the time the (league) season starts.”

Sierra got the lead early on when the Timberwolves’ Nico Gonzalez fired a shot across the left side into the right corner of West’s goal. West’s offense kept getting close, but three shots on goal in the first half and two more in the second were blocked by the Sierra goalie.

When Sierra did get through, West goalie Juan Garcia made his blocks, with four saves in the first half and two more in the second, while West’s defense, including Bryan Burnham, who headed away two Sierra cross-shots, limited the Timberwolves scoring chances in the second half.

“They were pretty solid, playing the ball and staying with their man,” Garcia said of his defense. “There were a couple times we just messed up on not clearing it out.”

Freshman-sophomore: West 6, Sierra 2

The West freshman-sophomore team beat Sierra 6-2 in its first game of the season Monday. Shawn Frisbie, right before his move to the varsity team, scored the first goal on a pass from Oscar Olivares in the 11th minute. Christian Guzman scored in the 36th minute on an assist from German Romer. Sierra scored right after that, and West scored two more within the next two minutes, first when Manny Lopez scored off an Alex Valencia pass, and again when Daniel Munoz scored one unassisted. Sierra scored to open the second half, and West’s Munoz responded in the 50th minute on an unassisted goal. Valencia scored in the 87th minute to make it a 6-2 game.

Tennis

West 5, Beyer 4

West swept all of the doubles contests in a home match on Tuesday against Beyer High of Modesto. Beyer won the three top singles matches and the number-six singles match, while West two singles matches.

West singles players Tiful Koul beat Shannon Mitten 6-0, 6-2, and Angie Juan beat Alanna Childs 6-3, 6-1. In the doubles, West’s Lesley Baires and Shannel Hawkins beat Ryan Rhodeman and Chloe Crawford 6-3, 6-3; Ebele Obi and Alison Pokorny beat Kathy Hisheir and Alexa Miler 6-0, 6-4; and Glenmae Tolentino and Jessica Anastasio beat Sarah George and Katie Greulich 6-3, 6-0.

Win for Beyer were: Jaqueline Jacques beat Emma Bell 6-2, 6-1; Eve Bybee beat Gabi Herrera 6-1, 6-3; Bianca Palotta beat Regina Pacheco 6-3, 6-3; and Gina Nuccio beat Ashley Vergel de Dios 7-5, 6-7(7-2), 7-5.

West goes to Bear Creek on Wednesday, and Tracy High on Thursday.

Tracy 5, Granada 0

Tracy High’s tennis team claimed a win in its first match of the season at home against Granada High (0-2) of Livermore. The Tracy team gave up only six games across three singles matches and two doubles matches, with no Granada player or doubles team able to manage more than two games over Tracy players.

In the singles, Renata Guzman beat Nicole Conrad 6-1, 6-0; Michelle Kouda beat Emily Tallarico 6-0, 6-0; and Chiara Adamo beat Haily Hibbard 6-1, 6-2. In the doubles, Becca Reinen and Cassidy Dolstra won their match 6-2, 6-0; and Paige Johnson and Aubrey Boehm won 6-0, 6-0.

Tracy hosts West at home on Thursday.