In an absolute battle, the Amador Valley girls water polo team earned a come-from-behind victory over rival Foothill last week.
On Senior Night for Foothill, the Falcons came out and took a 4-2 halftime lead thanks to 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, Amador super sophomore Susan Swyers racked up four goals, three assists, eight steals and made two kickouts to lead the Dons’ turnaround and secure the 9-5 victory.
Deepika Suresh was strong in goal, allowing only one Foothill goal in the second half. Suresh, another sophomore, made eight saves and three interceptions.
Valentina Avalos scored the Falcons’ only goal in the second half.
Kate Hopkins also had a goal and three assists for the Dons.
“We’ve had great success the last two seasons, with strong playoff runs and a wealth of talent,” Amador coach Tim Reilly said. “I knew graduating seven seniors over the past 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 difficult, but we We battled through injuries and the inexperience that comes with that. A young team. I’m so proud of these girls. They got here in 12 weeks.
It was also a game of mixed emotions for Reilly.
“I coached most of the Foothill girls on our club team, so it was great to see them play hard too,” Reilly said. “There’s a side of me that wants to see them succeed, but at the end of the day, I wear the purple shirt.”
Buttress volleyball
After going undefeated in East Bay Athletic League play, followed by two wins to win the EBAL playoffs, the Falcons received the No. 1 seed in the section’s Division I playoffs North Coast.
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 against Castro Valley.
It didn’t take long to figure out how this match was going to play out, as the Falcons scored the first 16 points of the first set to take a 25-6, 25-9, 25-17 victory.
Vintage served to open the game and after Foothill got the point, the Falcons scored 15 more points under the services of freshman Kait Vogel. She finished the evening with 23 service points, including six 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 propels the Falcons to the semifinals where they will face Amador Valley on Wednesday at Foothill. Game time is set for 7 p.m.
This will be the fourth time this year that the two teams have met. Amador handed the Falcons their only loss, beating them 2-0 in an early-season tournament.
Since then, Foothill has defeated Amador 3-2 and 3-0 in the EBAL regular season.
Amateur tennis
The Dons kept their playoff chances alive with a nice winning streak.
Beating Livermore 8-1, Amador’s wins included Dani Kaur and Lanie Win, as well as doubles teams 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 doubles teams Aditi Deshpande/West, Cheng/Avital Belau and Ella Kuipers/Anand.
Ultimately, the Dons closed out the season with a 6-3 victory over Carondelet.
The victories came from Kaur, Parkinson-Lubold, Neha Reddy, Geddam, Deshpande/West and Cheng/Kuipers.
