November 9, 2015
Around the Horn
Water polo par excellence
Diablo Valley College will be Water Polo Central this week.
The defending champion Vikings men's and women's teams are the top seeds for the CCCAA NorCal Regionals to be held Friday and Saturday at DVC.
The DVC men's team (18-12) will compete at 9 a.m. Saturday in the semifinals against the winner of Friday's first-round contest between No. 4 American River and No. 5 Merced. The championship game will be at 5 p.m. on Saturday.
The Vikings women's team (23-2) will compete in Saturday's semifinals at 11:40 a.m. against either No. 4 Foothill and No. 5 Sierra. The women's championship is set for 6:30 p.m. on Saturday.
The DVC men's and women's teams continued their outstanding traditions with Big 8 championships last week. The women beat San Joaquin Delta 8-6 in the championship game. The men also beat Delta 13-10 in the finals.
Megan Dietrich leads the Vikings women with 85 goals, 25 assists and 52 steals, and Hannah Dillon has 59 goals. Charlotte Demoulin has 52 goals and a team-high 46 assists. Ruby Personius has 34 goals and 26 assists.
Lucas Criado Martinez leads the DVC men with 75 goals, and Felipe Alterthum has 52 goals. Zac Hudson and Andras Telgedy both have 43 goals.
For complete information and tournament updates, visit the state website: http://www.cccaasports.org/sports/mwaterpolo/2015-16/releases/20151109ktqq1y
Women's soccer
Sophomore Julia Curran scored a dramatic goal in second-half stoppage time to give DVC a crucial 1-0 win over visiting American River on Friday in the Big 8.
"It was crazy," Curran said of the goal that touched off a Vikings' celebration while leaving ARC players stunned.
Curran's sixth goal of the season strengthened the Vikings' hand for a playoff spot with two games left in the regular season. After receiving a Andrea Weinstein pass, Curran hit a shot off an ARC defender, and the ball soared past ARC keeper Stephanie Doss seconds before the final whistle was blown.
Thus, what looked like it would be a disappointing result was transformed into a dream finish.
"I just fell over," DVC coach Cailin Mullins said of her joyous reaction. "It was such relief, because I was so upset about coming away with a tie, knowing that that was a team we should beat by a few goals. To get the result was very meaningful. I hadn't had a feeling like that in a while, where your heart just kind of totally shifts."
Curran, a former Ygnacio Valley High star, and her teammates kept battling in the final minutes. Doss had frustrated them with eight saves.
"I think we were just building and building," Curran said. "Coach had told me I needed to create width, and so I just got out wide. … No one on me. Everyone was focused on the center of the field. It came from the center. I was like, 'It's the last minute of the game, I'm just gonna chip it.' I shot it. It deflected off someone and it hit the corner."
The Vikings (8-3-6, 5-3-4) are riding a four-game unbeaten streak, and outstanding goalkeeper Katie McLaughlin has worked four straight shutouts. She has not allowed a goal in 384 minutes of play.
Mullins said the Vikings just need to "tidy" things up on the attack by making better decisions.
Diablo Valley received another stellar effort from midfielder Hannah Mazolewski, who was making plays all over the field.
"I felt like I was running around quite a bit today," Mazolewski said with a smile. "Normally, I'm more kind of more mobilized in one area, the center there, but yeah, a lot of running today. They were kind of running at us. Their center mids were definitely moving around a lot, so we had to keep up with that."
The Vikings, who moved into fourth place by winning twice last week, have a tough week ahead. They will host second-place Modesto on Tuesday, and will complete conference play at third-placeDelta on Nov. 14.
Football
The Vikings (4-5, 2-2 National Bay 6) need a victory over host Santa Rosa (6-3, 3-1) in the National Bay 6 on Saturday to become eligible for a bowl berth. Kickoff is 5 p.m.
Diablo Valley, which is completing a tough stretch against three of the state's best teams, fell 42-7 to powerful College of San Mateo Friday night at Viking Stadium.
Santa Rosa, CSM (7-2, 3-1) and City College of San Francisco (8-1, 4-0) are in a three-way battle for first place. CSM will host CCSF at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
The Vikings' offensive highlight against CSM came on a nice touchdown catch by Marcus Armstrong-Brown late in the fourth quarter on a pass from Drew Anderson, who leads the state with 30 touchdown passes.
Anderson also tops the state averaging 340.2 yards passing a game. CJ Cornwell is the runaway leader in the state with 83 receptions.
The Vikings' defensive lineman Chris Mulumba continued his dominant season with a team-high eight total tackles. Thompson Pulu had seven total tackles, and Steven O'Brien had six.
Women's volleyball
Diablo Valley (7-11, 3-8 Big 8) snapped a three-game losing streak with a thrilling 3-2 win over host Cosumnes River in conference play. The scores were 16-25, 25-20, 16-25, 25-21, 15-13. The Vikings' Jade Lee had 19 kills, and Jamie Chow had 23 assists and 22 digs. Noelle Vleisides had 11 kills and 27 digs, and Taylor-Marie Kanoe Pruett had a team-high 32 digs.
Cross country
Diablo Valley freshman Ariana Corwin finished 27th in the three-mile women's race in the NorCal Regional championships in Salinas, with a time of 20 minutes, 44.6 seconds.
A young DVC men's squad finished 12th in its four-mile NorCal race. Freshman Kin Wong, the Big 8 champion, led way by finishing 11th in a time of 21:38.2.
Jules Karman was 60th in 23:17.4, and Logan Portillo was 62nd in 23:18.7. Austin Hinds was 80th and Warsame Mohamed was 95th.
Women's basketball
The talented Vikings (2-1) dropped their first game of the season, 92-73 to host Mission College at the Mission tournament on Sunday.
Jojuan Carrington, a freshman out of Dublin High, led the Vikings with 19 points, and Brandy Williams had a team-high 13 rebounds.
DVC's Povai Fesili and Kayla Frierson both had 10 points from off the bench.
Ranked No. 1 in the Northern California preseason poll, DVC opened the tourney with back-to-back wins, 89-53 over Lassen and 77-67 over East Los Angeles. But the uptempo squad averaged 25.5 turnovers in the victories. The Vikings had 31 turnovers against Mission.
Carrington had 23 points against Lassen. She had 13 points and 14 rebounds against East L.A. Williams had a monster game with 18 points and 14 boards.
Men's basketball
The Vikings (0-2) opened the season with two close defeats in the Las Positas tournament, falling 71-66 to Butte in overtime and 70-66 to Contra Costa.
-
Matt Schwab