By Pete Borello

Fall Sports Summary

Girls tennis

St. Francis swept host Stevenson 7-0 Thursday in a non-league match to improve to 2-1.

The Lancers’ top singles player, Stephanie Schnitter, beat Kristin Lee 6-3, 6-3.

The previous day, Schnitter cruised to a 6-1, 6-1 win over Gabbi Hernandez of Gunn and host St. Francis won 6-1.

Mountain View opened its season Thursday with a 4-3 win over Wilcox. Top player Anthu Vu led the host Spartans with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Michelle Pang.

Field hockey

Fresh off an impressive second-place finish at the Willow Glen Jamboree, Los Altos trounced Saratoga 6-0 Sept. 10.

Sophomore Suzanne Garcia scored two goals for the host Eagles (2-0).

Host St. Francis walloped Willow Glen 4-0 Thursday, getting two goals each from Tessa Kannell and Lauren Haugh.

Cross country

Los Altos High coach Dave Winn had a short explanation for the straight-game loss his girls volleyball team suffered last Thursday night.

“Mitty had too much firepower,” Winn said of Mitty’s 15-0, 15-10, 15-3 victory.

After failing to score in the first game against the Monarchs, one of the top teams in the Central Coast Section, the host Eagles battled back in the second. But after jumping out to a 6-0 lead, Winn said, “Los Altos’ passing and hitting became error prone and Mitty took advantage.”

Allie Miller, Ashley Watson and Juli Winterbotham totaled four kills each to lead the Eagles (4-3), while Ashley Bjorklund posted nine assists.

Earlier in the week, host St. Francis (2-0). swept Los Altos.

Miller had eight kills and two assists for the Eagles and Bjorklund recorded 14 assists.

Overconfidence played a part in Gunn’s four-game loss at Menlo-Atherton Thursday, Titans coach Evan Barth said.

“You have to have an edge in sports, especially volleyball,” Barth said about Menlo-Atherton’s 7-15, 15-12, 15-7, 15-11 victory. “We lost that and we never got it back.”

Gunn (5-3) led the second game 12-5, then watched the Bears go on a 10-2 run to win it. The Bears (4-1) went up 11-1 to start the third game and the Titans’ late rally came up short.

The match went five games, but Pinewood couldn’t get past Woodside Priory on Thursday. Host Woodside pulled out a 17-15, 7-15, 15-2, 14-16, 15-11 win.

The visiting Panthers were paced by Brett Smith-Hams (seven kills) and Anna Tracey (seven kills, seven blocks).

Los Altos on Thursday competed in its first meet of the season, the Firebird Invitational in Sunnyvale, with the boys placing second and the girls seventh.

The boy were led by Taff Dirks who placed third with a time of 10 minutes, 30 seconds.

The girls were led by Vivian Chiu (18th, 13:24).

Mountain View also took part in the meet, with Matt Ronconi (29th, 11:19) leading the boys and Emilie Doolittle pacing the girls (33rd, 14:00).