High School Sports

After playing its first six games away from Gilroy, the Christopher High boys varsity basketball team hit the ground running in its home opener with a 71-48 victory over Pacific Collegiate on Tuesday night.

MORGAN HILL - Macey Dunne and Megan Rauschnot scored on two superb passes by Alissa Pham and Shannon Rauschnot, and Live Oak beat Gilroy 2-0 Tuesday in the undefeated Acorns' first real nonleague test this year.

Despite losing all-leaguer Chelsea Hill, five others to graduation and its head coach from a 2010-11 team that cruised to an undefeated Tri-County Athletic League championship (22-2 overall) and was moments away from advancing to the Central Coast Section Division I finals, the pieces were in place – four key returners and a handful of wildcard newcomers eager to contribute – for a sequel in 2011-12.

Eight teams will vie for the title at the 32nd annual Bob Hagen Memorial boys basketball tournament, which is hosted by Gilroy High and kicks off Thursday afternoon.

The Gilroy High wrestling team hit the mats for the first time this season at the Chukchansi Invitational, taking fourth place at the 37-team tournament over the weekend.

Though the Christopher High girls volleyball team fell two victories short of qualifying for the Central Coast Section playoffs, the 2011 season can still be considered a banner year. The Cougars posted a program best 18 wins, including seven in Monterey Bay League play en route to a fourth-place finish in the seven-team league under first-year head coach Tom Schatz.

One day after the Christopher High girls varsity basketball team went four overtime periods in an eventual 69-64 loss to San Benito on Friday, the Cougars again entered an extra session against host Watsonville on the final day of the Wildcatz Invitational on Saturday.

The Gilroy High boys varsity soccer team played Bellarmine to a 1-1 tie at the half, however the Bells collected the deciding goal in the second half for a 2-1 victory in Gilroy on Thursday night.

From start to finish. Or, in this case, is it vice versa?

Formation of the new equity league that will combine the 14 boys' and girls' prep sports teams that once made up the Tri-County Athletic League and Monterey Bay League took another step toward completion Tuesday night.