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Lady Dragons upend defending champ Analy, play Concord Tourney

Spikers host Jags Thursday; girl runers compete; water polo hosting

You can now make that two dynamic wins over longtime Sonoma County League rivals in one week for Sonoma Valley High School’s varsity volleyball girls, who accomplished the feat in front of their excited home fans at Pfeiffer Gym.

After sweeping past nemisis El Molino 25-14, 25-18, 31-29 last Tuesday, the Lady Dragons avenged an earlier five-set loss to Analy by turning the tables and defeating the defending SCL champion in another five-set match by scores of 25-15, 25-20, 20-25, 22-25 and 15-12 fifth-game thriller on Thursday.

With the rousing win over the visiting Tigers – the second in their last three meetings dating back to last year’s regular-season ending upset – the Sonoma girls improved their SCL record to 5-2 and put themselves in the thick of the league-title race with Analy and Petaluma.

Leading the Lady Dragons to their major triumph were senior libero Karly Burningham’s 33 digs; senior setter Jersey Witous’ 32 digs, four solo blocks and one assisted block, and three serving aces; freshman Mackenzie Albrecht’s 30 digs, two aces and one solo block; frosh Delaney Swanson’s 19 kills; senior Karisa Hess’ 15 kills and two solo blocks; senior Gabby Petersen’s nine kills and one solo block; senior Alissa Thomas’ four aces; and junior Taryn Mak’s two solo blocks and junior Allyson Beckwith’s one.

Sonoma’s girl spikers play at SCL foe Healdsburg tonight, before hosting league rival Windsor this Thursday, Oct. 13, with the frosh starting at 4, the junior varsity at 5, and the varsity at 6:30 p.m.

On Saturday, the Lady Dragons competed in the Concord Tournament and posted a 3-2 record, beating Antioch, Granada and Novato, while falling to Marin Catholic and San Marin, with the tourney results not available at presstime.

 

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Sonoma’s cross country girls’ team ran in the Crystal Springs Invitational on Saturday and placed 18th out of 38 schools, with 278 individual finishers completing the 2.95-mile course.

Pacing the Lady Dragon runners were junior Gianna Biaggi’s 71st-place in 20 minutes, 47 seconds; junior Hannah Cenci’s 78th in 20:54; junior team-captain Serena Spry’s 105th in 21:39; junior Laura Amador’s 151st in 22:32; and frosh Hanna Lemaire’s 158th in 22:40.

“Our girls team is small, but mighty, with just five on the team, so finishing in the top half of all the schools competing, without even having the normal sixth and seventh runners that most teams have was pretty exciting,” said Sonoma head coach John Litzenberg. “They are a competitive group, but they also have a close bond and they help each other, which is really nice to see.”

Sonoma’s boy and girl runners hit the SCL road for dual-meets at Windsor tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 12.

 

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Sonoma’s boys’ and girls’ water polo teams will host Cardinal Newman in Redwood Empire League matches at 4 p.m. tomorrow, Wednesday, Oct. 12, at the Sonoma Aquatic Club pool.