Last year, the Sonoma Valley High School varsity basketball girls ended up finishing their Sonoma County League campaign in second place after dropping a pair of decisions, including an overtime heartbreaker, to first-place-finishing Petaluma.
In Wednesday night’s 2014 SCL season opener, the Lady Dragons hosted defending champion and longtime rival Petaluma in Pfeiffer Gym and overcame an outbreak of turnovers and lost rebounds, by battling for four quarters and, thanks to their defense, earned a little bit of payback for last year’s two close losses.
After Sonoma grabbed a 13-11 first-quarter lead on the strength of three treys by junior Alexa Hall, the visiting Trojan girls held a 25-23 halftime advantage and were up by four points early in the third quarter.
But the Lady Dragons turned up their defense pressure, which limited Petaluma to only five points in the period and sparked an 11-2 run for a 35-30 lead after three quarters, before taking over the late-game momentum and cruising in for a 53-42 victory.
“That was a big win for us – but it’s only one win and we need to build on it by continuing to improve our overall play with a long SCL season ahead of us,” said Sonoma head coach Sil Coccia, who’s assisted by Dino Minatta and Sheila Brady.
Leading the Lady Dragons were junior Mackenzie Albrecht’s 15 points, nine rebounds, two steals and one blocked shot; Hall’s 15 points with the three treys; junior Delaney Swanson’s 10 points, seven rebounds, three steals and two assists; junior Hanna Lemaire’s eight points, five rebounds and three assists; senior Giana Monterosso’s three points, three assists and two blocks; sophomore Bella Bollman two points; and junior Ciara Smith’s two blocks.
Rounding out the Sonoma varsity girls’ roster are seniors Maddie Burningham and Megan Neely; and juniors Laryssa Baker, Shelby Camilleri and Sierra Lilly.
The Lady Dragons host SCL foe El Molino today at 5:30 in Pfeiffer Gym, with the preceding junior varsity game slated for 4 p.m.
•••
Sonoma’s jayvee hoops girls, coached by Jann Thorpe, got their SCL season off to an upbeat start with Wednesday night’s 57-29 win over visiting Petaluma.
Leading the Lady Dragon jayvees were freshman Grace Cutting’s 13 points, sophomore Renee O’Donnell’s 11, sophomores Jenny Eggers and Sami Von Gober’s 10 each, frosh Kayla Field’s five, frosh Katie Stovall’s four, and sophomore Emma Stanfield and frosh Alanna Johnston’s two apiece.
Rounding out Sonoma’s jayvee girls’ roster are sophomores Rocky Darnell and Annie Greenslade.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: