There are less than three weeks left in the CCS girls regular season with several of the premier leagues looking like they will go down to the wire.
WCAL : A comfortable Mitty win over Valley Christian on Saturday, combined with a St. Francis loss to St. Ignatius sees the Monarchs take a one point lead at the top of the WCAL race. The Lancers do get to play the Monarchs one more time, but the match will be at Mitty and the Monarchs have a game in hand. Mitty’s only defeat on the season came against St. Francis in mid January.
“The girls view every match remaining as a playoff contest," said Mitty coach JT Hanley. “This is always a tough league, so we’ll have a battle every step of the way over the next two and and half weeks. We’re excited for the run in and definitely up for the fight.” The Monarchs are one of the most balanced team in CCS in terms of scoring with senior Svea Neunfinger scoring eight goals and junior Emma Vane with five.
SCVAL De Anza: Los Gatos has had another strong year and sits atop the SCVAL De Anza division standings with four games to play with a two point lead over Homestead. As it happens Los Gatos will travel to Cupertino to take on Homestead on Wednesday in what could ultimately being the pivotal game for SCVAL supremacy. The Wildcats defeated their local rival Saratoga previously behind two goals from senior Keli Keady. Junior Emily Nedom scored the third in the Wildcats win and also leads her team with fifteen goals on the season, averaging 1.3 goals per game.
Mountain View may be one of the most talented teams in the section, but have fallen off the pace despite being the only team to defeat Los Gatos, in league or otherwise. With so much of Mountain View’s point total for the playoffs dependent upon other teams at this point the lady Spartans could find themselves in the Open bracket or all the way down in Division 2 or 3 if it works out that way.
BVAL Mt. Hamilton : Live Oak finds itself in first place in one of the four CCS “A” leagues, two points above Leigh with four games to go. As fate would have it Live Oak travels to San Jose on Tuesday night to take on Leigh in a battle for first place. The Acorns will rely continue to rely heavily on junior Karlie Lema, who leads the team with thirteen goals. Besides the two top teams Leland and Pioneer should comfortably make the playoffs. Piedmont Hills, despite only one win in league has a chance for a high CCS seed due to its strength of its non-league schedule play which included six wins and two ties. The Pirates of Piedmont Hills are lead by senior Emely Ramirez, one of the top scorers in all of CCS with twenty one goals.
PAL Bay : Woodside was looking like the team to beat in the CCS’ final “A” league, but were absolutely thrashed by Carlmont 0-6, which moves the Scots into first place. Previously Woodside defeated Carlmont 2-1 earlier in January. Senior Kyla Orthbandt scored the lone goal in Carlmont’s victory over rival Meno-Atherton to maintain the two point advantage with four games remaining. Overall the Scots are paced by sophomore Maddie Cunningham with ten goals, but have major goal contribution from Samantha Phan and Sabrina Kelly as well to lead one of the best attacks in the CCS.
Even with falling into second place Woodside still has a great chance to qualify for the Open division of the CCS playoffs. The PAL’s top division could see as many as five teams qualify for the playoffs in their respective decisions.
