Vintage grad Mini claims first victory

NOTES AND QUOTES for a Tuesday in the Napa Valley:

Tessa Mini won her first match as an NCAA-Division I player for the University of Portland women’s tennis team earlier this month.

Playing at the No. 6 singles spot, the Vintage High School graduate beat Kylea Gleason, 6-4, 6-4, as the Pilots downed Portland State, 6-1. It was the Pilots’ third straight win.

Mini won a Monticello Empire League title for Vintage and played four years of tennis for the Crushers. She was a three-time all-MEL selection, a three-time team MVP and played in the No. 1 singles spot her last three years.

Mini played in U.S. Tennis Association-sanctioned junior tournaments around Northern California before going to Portland, a member of the West Coast Conference.

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The Napa Galaxy, an under-19 girls soccer team coached by Michael Rossi, went 2-0-1 last weekend and advanced to the quarterfinals of the State Cup at the Morgan Hill Soccer Complex.

In a 5-0 win over Elk Grove Ice, Jessica Friedlander scored the first goal and had two assists as Napa built a 2-0 halftime lead. Kayla Mays, Megan Zoeller, Sarah Risso and Barbara Bakh each had a goal. Mary Dinov played well on defense.

Superior goal keeping by Anna-Marie Scaduto and top defense from Lauren Waldenburg, Risso, Hailey Oster and Allison Aylard gave Napa a 0-0 tie against the Danville Stampede Sunday.

Two second-half goals led Napa to a 2-0 win over WCC Alliance. Taylor Phillips scored off an assist by Bakh and Oster scored a goal with the assist going to Friedlander. Maria Gonzalez, Chanel Curtis and Brittney Fahy controlled the midfield. Amanda Martin made two big saves in goal to preserve the shutout.

State Cup action resumes Feb. 28.

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After losing their first two league games, the Solano College Falcons won 14 in a row and tied Contra Costa-San Pablo for the Bay Valley Conference women’s basketball title.

Allie Davison, a 2008 Napa High graduate, has had a lot to do with Solano’s success.

She had her best game of the season against Los Medanos-Pittsburg, scoring 12 points of 4-of-8 shooting and 3-of-3 free-throw shooting with five rebounds and two steals. She also had nine points, eight rebounds and a steal against Napa Valley College.

Davison, who played basketball for coach Darci Lewis at Napa High for two years, was recently given the President’s Award for the highest GPA (3.52) on the Solano team.

The Falcons (17-12 overall, 14-2 BVC) start the Northern California playoffs Wednesday. They are the 18th seed and travel to No. 15 Chabot-Hayward for a 7 p.m. start. Chabot plays in the Coast Conference North.

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The Cal State East Bay softball team is getting very good play from Samantha Sciutto, a 2008 Vintage graduate, and Kendra Mason, a Napa Valley College transfer.

Sciutto had two hits as Cal State East Bay lost 6-1 to Concordia University.

In a 3-1 victory over Azusa Pacific, Sciutto had three hits and drove in a run. Mason pitched a complete game, allowing one run on four hits with four strikeouts.

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The Amgen Tour of California, a nine-day Tour de France-style cycling road race presented by AEG, drew two million fans along the 750-mile race route from Sacramento to Escondido. Stage one went through Pope Valley, Angwin, Deer Park and Calistoga.

Levi Leipheimer of Astana was crowned champion, for the third straight year.

“We are enormously satisfied with the race,” said Andrew Messick, president, AEG Sports. “We’ve had some epic racing, beautiful terrain and enormous crowds.”

E-mail Executive Sports Editor Marty James at mjames@napanews.com or call 256-2223.

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