As temperatures rise, Cal High’s spring sports teams are turning up the heat on the competition.
The men’s tennis, baseball, softball, and track and field teams continue their dominance this season, while men’s volleyball and beach volleyball are starting to build a new legacies with promising starts.
Men’s Tennis
As in previous years, Cal (14-2), got off to a strong start, but lost both games to Dougherty Valley this season.
“Our two losses were close matches against Dougherty Valley that we lost marginally,” senior varsity player Trevan Rosete said. “Multiple things could’ve changed the losses to wins.”
Because of Cal’s losses to Dougherty, Cal is second in the EBAL after winning league the past three seasons. Cal also won NCS and finished as runners up to the state championship the past two years.
Track & Field
Cal’s track and field team has been racing toward another successful seas
on, but the Grizzlies still have a lot of big meets in front of them.
Important meets that are looming include the EBAL Championship, NCS Tri-Valley and NCS Meet of Champions.
“I think a lot of our athletes will make it to NCS,” senior captain, Elise Lee said.
Lee believes Cal’s 4×400 relay team consisting of seniors Aiden Williams and Francesco Nudo, junior Darius Brown, and freshman Trevor Davis has a chance to reach the State Finals if they stay healthy and run their best. Brown is coming off a hamstring injury but should be ready for EBALs.
Lee is making her mark as she is first in the league in triple jump with a distance of 35 feet, 6 inches, performing well as in previous years when she was third-team All-EBAL in the event.
“I’m hoping to get first team all league this year,” said Lee, who is hoping to build on last season’s accomplishments. “Last season was really good. I was the only person at Cal to make it to the Meet of Champions, which is the meet before state.”
Softball
After a four-game losing streak in early April, Cal’s softball team dropped to fifth in the league with a 6-5 record. The team is 12-10 overall.
But the Grizzlies snapped their losing streak on April 11 with an 8-4 win over Granada, and they hope to carry some momentum into the postseason.
“We’re doing pretty well, every game’s a lot of fun, and people are really nice and funny,” freshman Natalie Masalin said. “We’ve won the majority of the games we should have won, and we’ve been competitive against difficult teams.”
Masalin thinks the team will have a good shot at getting into EBAL and NCS as the softball team has been a consistent participant in the postseason.
The team’s biggest win was against Dougherty Valley, beating the Wildcats 23-0 on March 24.
Men’s Volleyball
Cal also has experienced success against Dougherty Valley this season, winning their first match 3-0 on March 26. They followed that up with a 2-0 win at a tournament on March 28.
“We qualified for NCS already,” junior captain Beau Banta said because of the team’s 18-14 overall record. “We’re gonna have to play well and make sure nobody’s injured. We’ve got a chance [to go far] I think.”
This is the first time in 10 years the Grizzlies have a winning record and put themselves in position to qualify for NCS. Cal is 6-7 in league play.
“I think we’re all excited,” Banta said. “We’ll probably get a chance to do something in the state qualifiers.”
Banta is not only one of the team’s captains but he is also one of their setters. Banta is also on his way to break his personal assist record of more than 500. This means he has set the ball and a teammate hits a kill, scoring the team a point, more than 500 times in a year.
“I think I’m on track to break the assist record for our school,” Banta said. “It’s like over 1,000, but since I’ve been playing since freshman year for var, I have to be close to that.”
Banta’s favorite game was against De La Salle when Cal won the first two sets before the Spartans pulled off the win in the end. Even with the loss, Cal put up a good fight with a close 3-2 loss on the road on March 31.
“We’re an underdog,” Banta said. “So just have an underdog mentality in every game.”
Baseball
The Grizzlies baseball team is also having a strong season so far. Cal is in second place in the EBAL Valley Conference at 4-2, 11-7-2 overall.
The team got off to a good start in league by winning its first two league games against Livermore, 12-7 on April 15 and 6-5 on April 17.
“We just got our first league win yesterday [over Livermore,],” senior pitcher Matthew Carano said. “So I think that’s pretty big. You know, we started off with one win in the league.”
Senior pitcher Chris Basurto said some challenges for the team are finding leaders and facing off against the better teams during the playoffs.
“We have a much younger team, there aren’t a lot of seniors, so the younger guys, they have more of a role,” Basurto said. “We’ve always been more of an older team, so there was a lot more leadership, I’d say it’s honestly similar performance.”
Basurto said the team’s best win was against Pittsburgh High on March 11 It was a tense game that went all the way into the ninth inning, when Cal was able to pull out a 3-2 victory.
“It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up,” Basurto said.
Badminton
Cal entered last Wednesday’s game against Dougherty Valley tied with the Wildcats for first place in the EBAL.
Unfortunately, the Grizzlies lost to Dougherty and should finish second in league.
“Everyone has been trying their hardest,” senior David Chin said. “We’ve had great practices, great team bondings, everyone’s morale is pretty high.”
Chin said the team is performing so well because it is training as one team, instead of being conflicting and separated.
“All the team bonding that has happened has been a pinnacle in the season,” Chin said. “It definitely brought our team a lot closer together compared to last season where people were more farther out from each other.”
Chin said the team’s best match was against Monte Vista on April 22. The match was tied 8-8 until the very end when juniors Irene Hung and Katelyn Do won the deciding game. This win moved
Cal into a tie for first with Dougherty, setting up first-place showdown last week.
Beach Volleyball
The Grizzlies kicked off their second ever season with the new sport after going 8-4-1 last year.
Cal is 3-2 in the EBAL, 5-5 overall. Scores from their final two games last week were not reported, bu the team beat Emerald 3-0 on April 28.
