FALL SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS : L. A. Baptist Ends Volleyball Season With 52nd Straight League Win

The winning tradition at L. A. Baptist girls volleyball will not be challenged again until next year.

The Knights won their 52nd consecutive Alpha League game Thursday beating Montclair Prep, 15-8, 15-7 and 15-8.

It was the last league game for senior co-captains Erika Johnson, Erin Marasca and Susie Duane, all of whom have played key roles in the streak. Johnson set brilliantly for Marasca’s six kills and Kendra Frazier’s 5 kills. Laurie Evans took charge early on in the match with powerful defense to lead the Knights to the three-game victory.

Throughout the season, the L. A. Baptist winning streak was only threatened twice. Both matches, one against Lutheran and one against Village Christian, went five games.

“Now the streak is off our backs until next year,” Coach Cindy Noblitt said.

The Knights begin Southern Section playoffs Thursday with a 14-0 league record.

Loyola’s cross-country team has clinched the Del Ray League title for the third year in a row after winning the finals at College of the Canyons with 24 points Thursday.

Finishing second and third in the finals were Alemany with 68 points and St. John Bosco with 99 points.

Each school enters its seven best runners in the finals and must take an accumulative score of the first five who finish.

Loyola had runners finish in the first three places to account for their low combined score. Mike McCracken came in first with a time of 16:43, and was followed teammates Joseph Brink, 16:55, and John Sloan, 17:12. Notre Dame’s sophomore Mike Glaze came in fourth with a time of 17:35 and four seconds later Alemany’s Greg Jones came in for fifth place.

Crespi played host to the finals.

Loyola will try to defend their Southern Section title when the preliminary meets begin Nov. 10 at Mt. San Antonio College.

Sophomore Marlin Rodriguez led the Taft cross-country team with a time of 17:07 to defeat Canoga Park 17-41. The Toreadors remain undefeated in four meets with a 2-0 West Valley League record.

Rod Braunthal came in behind Rodriguez on the Pierce College course with a time of 17:26. Finishing third, was Eric Kobrine in 17:52. Taft runs against Reseda Thursday at Pierce in what is supposed to be the toughest league challenge facing the Toreadors.

Two goals by right wing Francisco Matheu helped the North Hollywood soccer team edge Westchester, 2-1, Thursday at North Hollywood Park.

The Husky defense was led by Jorge Alvarez, according to Coach Lowell Thomas.

North Hollywood and Westchester both are 2-1 in the Western League and 4-1 overall.

Westlake’s water polo team finished third in the Marmonte league after defeating Newbury Park 10-4. The win will allow Westlake to compete in the Southern Section playoffs next week.

Steve Strong and Dan Yamini led the Westlake team with four and two scores respectively. Goalie Eric Weber made 14 saves in the game which improved Westlake’s league record to 4-4.

Newbury Park fell to a final league record of 3-4.

Westlake’s girls volleyball team will share the Marmonte League title with Royal after defeating Simi Valley 15-11, 16-14, 15-17 and 15-5.

Royal also won their match against Thousand Oaks 15-1, 15-1 and 15-7.

Westlake’s outside hitters Alissa Evans and Sandy Kranz led the team with 20 and nine kills respectively. Middle blocker Tristin Gram made several blocks that helped Westlake comeback in the fourth game to win the title. Westlake finishes the season 11-1 in league and 14-3 overall.

Playoffs begin Thursday.

Cathedral took first place in the Santa Fe League cross-country finals at Hansen Dam, accumulating just 37 points on the three-mile course.

Bringing in nearly twice that was Bell-Jeff who took second place with 69 points. Third place went to Chaminade with 86 points. The top three teams advance to Southern Section preliminaries at Mt San Antonio College Nov. 9. La Salle missed this opportunity by just three points, falling to fourth place with 89 points.

Cathedral’s John Trafecanty finished first with a time of 14:39. Nearly a minute behind Trafecanty was St. Genevieve’s Hector Ruiz, 15:09, and Cathedral’s George Reyes, 15:10.

In addition to the top three teams, the top three runners from one of the other four schools in the competition will advance to the preliminaries.

These are Ruiz, Murphy’s George Ortiz, 15:40, and La Salle’s Dave Rohan, 15:59.

Nordhoff won the Frontier League cross-country finals at Oxnard College with a combined score of 35 points.

Agoura and Calabasas tied with 56 points, but Agoura was named second place winner because of their previous records.

In the girls cross-country, Nordhoff won the league finals with just 20 points.

Bringing in three times as many points for second place was Agoura. Calabasas came in third place with 75 points.

Calabasas’ girls volleyball team came back in the fifth game to beat visiting Agoura 15-6, 4-15, 15-10, 13-15 and 15-8. The win moves the Coyotes, 6-2, into second place in the Frontier League behind Nordhoff.

Calabasas’s Lynn Goldstein led the match with a .444 hitting percentage. Carolyn Blake and Tracy Gonzales were both responsible for several successful blocks and Kelly Martin played consistently for the Coyotes. Sandi Thomsen led the team with 12 kills.

Results of West Valley League soccer games: Chatsworth 2, Granada Hills 1; Reseda 2, El Camino 1; Cleveland 2, Canoga Park 0