Led again by defending league champion Adriana Ortencio, the Los Al Griffins girls golf team not only captured its first Sunset League title in a long time, but finished third at Monday’s CIF Central Regionals and advances to Wednesday’s team final in Ojai.
      Ortencia and teammate Robyn Kim each shot a 6-over-par 78 as the Griffins, the No. 7 team in Orange County, shot a 430 at Yucaipa Valley Golf Club on Monday to earn their trip to Thursday’s final at the Soule Park Golf Course in Ojai. Los Al’s score placed them one stroke ahead of San Marino. Crescenta Valley (415) and Murrieta Valley (422) took the top two spots. St. Margaret's, Orange County's second-ranked team, finished sixth, 10 strokes behind San Marino.
      Last week Ortencia, the defending league champ, shot 6 over par 114 to repeat as the Sunset League individual champion. Kim shot 122 to place fifth. That performance capped off a dominating regular season for the Griffins who went 18-0 overall and 10-0 in league play.

      The Los Al girls tennis team avenged a first-round defeat on games to Esperanza by downing the Aztecs 10-8 on Monday, and capture at least a share of the Sunset League title for what must be the nine thousandth three hundred and first time.
      In their first meeting at Esperanza, the Aztecs won six of nine singles sets to edge Los Alamitos on Oct. 12. by seven games.
      On Monday, the Griffins, (13-2, 9-1, ranked No. 7 in Division II), got a great effort from their No. 3 doubles team of Elise Vo and Tricia Mar, which beat Esperanza's No. 1 team of Leah Bartlett and Laura Fryer, 7-6 (5), to defeat the No. 6-ranked Aztecs, 10-8, and earn a share of the Sunset League title.
      Allyssa Nafarrete swept in singles for Los Al, winning 6-0, 6-2, 6-0.

     The Sunset League individual championships will be played Thursday and Friday at the Seal Beach Tennis center.

      The top-seeded Long Beach State 49ers women’s soccer team will host the Big West Tournament beginning this Friday with the winner headed to the NCAA Tournament. Tickets can be purchased online or by calling (562) 985-4949.
      The 49ers earned the right to host the tournament and claim the Big West title by downing Cal State Fullerton 1-0 before a national TV audience last Wednesday.
      The 49ers hope to rebound from last Sunday's regular season finale which they lost to UC Riverside 3-0 although Beach, (14-4-1, 5-1-1 Big West) with the top seed already secured in next week's conference tournament, rested some key players.

      Former Los Al High soccer standout, who began the season as an unheralded, unknown fourth-round pick in the 2006 MLS SuperDraft, was named the MLS’ Gatorade Rookie of the Year on Tuesday.
      Bornstein, who played every position but goalkeeper for Chivas this season, was a runaway pick for the award.
      The UCLA product, who also played two years of college soccer at Cal Poly Pomona, scored six goals - more than any other rookie - and tallied four assists. He logged 2,878 minutes, more than any other field player in the league.
      Bornstein was unheralded even for much of his career at Los Al. He struggled to get playing time on JVs as a gangly scrawny sophomore that looked more like a discoherent collection of legs and and arms that seemed to be going all ways at once.
      But by his junior year he suddenly emerged as a complimentary threat alongside fellow Griffin and future Chivas USA teammate Mike Munoz and together they almost took the Griffins to the CIF promised land in 2001 before falling in overtime to Millikan on a mud-splattered field in one of the best high school soccer games I have ever seen in my life (and that includes years of AYSO).
      The next year, Bornstein became a force of his own to be reckoned with and led Los Al to the CIF Division II title.
      But even with that success, and then in winning the Golden Boot award as the leading scorer at the U17 club soccer national championships with his Irvine Strikers club, Bornstein was again overlooked and "settled" for a scholarship at Cal Poly Pomona.
      Fortunately his coach, Paul Caligiuri, a former US national team player, recognized Bornstein as too good for that level of play and helped him arrange a transfer to UCLA.
      Bornstein put in two strong seasons with the Bruins, but again had to fight for notice in last year's MLS draft.
      After Tuesday's award, he should have to fight for attention no more.

Of course, the way he's going now, our Jon Bornstein archives seem to be growing exponentially, and we may have to start a completely separate section for links to stories about him. Here are a couple of the latest, one from the The Jewish Daily Journal and a nice feature by Matt Zimmerman with the Long Beach Press-Telegram.

No. 14 Boise State -- which features a gaggle of former Griffins on its blue-bedecked roster (including Jeremy Childs, Quinton Jones, and Orlando Scandrick -- shown at right) gets the national TV treatment via ESPN2 as they take on Fresno State in a Wednesday night broadcast (Wednesday night football?!?) Childs, the Griffins all-time leading receiver and a reserve redshirt freshman receiver for the Broncos, caught a 22-yard TD pass in the Broncos win over New Mexico State on Oct. 15. A look at Boise's depth chart shows that Jones and Scandrick are the team's starting cornerbacks (Jones is also their main punt returner). Scandrick got a nice write-up in the OC Register last week.
      Washington State and Dan Rowlands entered October with a 3-2 record and bad vibes after going 0-9 in the Halloween month in 2004 and ’05. But after three straight wins -- including last Saturday's thrashing of UCLA -- it’s been a red October for the 6-3 Cougars who have a good chance of winning the rest of their games and improving their No. 23 BCS ranking. You may recall that the Cougs almost nipped USC’s 38-game Pac 10 win streak at the end of September. But those honors went to Oregon State last Saturday. The Beavers are of course, coached by former Seal Beach-ian Mike Riley, who lived in the Bay City when he was an assistant at USC in the 90’s. The loss dropped the Trojans to No. 8 in the BCS derby, no doubt giving some consolation to local UCLA die-hards.
      Wrapping up our football funfest, here’s a link to some more Jimmy Barnes news out of Alabama -- and last but not least, former Griffin Chad Manis is doing some good things as the QB for Cerritos College.

      Rachel Moss (LAHS ’06) and Duke went undefeated during the first half of the ACC schedule before suffering their first conference loss at Georgia Tech last Friday. The Devils, who are now 12-1, bounced back to defeat Clemson on Saturday and host NC State this weekend. Moss, who is second on the Duke team in almost every statistical category – not bad at all for a freshman -- got the full-scale 20 questions-and-then-some interview treatment at the Duke website.
      Junior Ashley Tarutis (LAHS ’04, shown right) will try to help Notre Dame end a three-match Big East losing this weekend when the Irish travel to Georgetown and South Florida. Tarutis, one of only three Irish to play in every single game, now has 545 assists in 80 games this season and 3,268 assists in her career, which is fourth all-time for ND.
      Jamie Garbisch (LAHS ’03) had 10 kills, but her UCSB volleyball team was swept by Long Beach State last Saturday night before a nationwide cable audience on CSTV.
      She’s not playing every game, but freshman Alex Filkins (LAHS ’06) is getting regular time for UC Irvine which won two games last week, downing UCSB and Ca Poly to improve its Big West record to 3-5.
      Los Al is also well represented on what is probably the smartest college volleyball team in the nation – the MIT Engineers. Griffin alum Katie Rowe (LAHS ’06) chipped in for three aces as the Engineers swept Tufts to win the Volleyball Hall of Fame Tournament in Northhampton, Massachusetts.

      The Los Alamitos girls volleyball team took Esperanza on a scary Halloween tour of the Los Al gym Tuesday night, sweeping the Aztecs (25-16, 25-17, 25-19) and claiming a share of their fifth straight Sunset League title.
      Esperanza which had swept the Griffins two weeks ago in Aztec-land, entered the game ranked No. 4 in CIF Division I, while Los Al was No. 5.
      Los Al (20-5, 8-1) can win it outright by defeating No. 7 Newport Harbor on Thursday. The Sailors, who swept Marina on Tuesday, can claim a share of the title with a win.

      Click here to read the Press-Telegram account of the.

      Click here to view the OC Register account of the game.

      With the NCAA women's playoff brackets scheduled to be announced next Monday, it’s nervous time for many Los Al alums playing on Division I college teams with still viable playoff aspirations.
      Long Beach State (with Hayley Bolt and Julie Megorden – both LAHS ’05) hosts the Big West tournament this weekend (see above story), with the winner guaranteed an NCAA berth. With the conference ranked as the fourth toughest in the country, it’s possible a second place finish could still earn a playoff spot by why risk it?
      Oklahoma State (Niccole Grimaldi, LAHS ’04), which ended the regular season as the 7th-ranked team in the country, begins postseason play as the No. 2 seed in the Big 12 Championship this weekend. The Cowgirls play seventh-seeded Oklahoma on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. OSU is 15-2-2 on the season after defeating Murray State in the regular season finale on Oct. 28. Grimaldi, a starting junior defender for State, earned second team all-academic honors.
      Evansville (Rocky Hearst, LAHS ’05) came from behind to down Indiana State 3-1 and qualified for the Missouri Valley Conference semi-final game to be played this Friday against tourney host Creighton. Evansville now has a 9-8 record.
      Illnois (Jamie Alvis, LAHS ’05) has rebounded nicely from a dismal season start, and will enter this weekend’s Big Ten tournament as the No. 2 seed Illinois. The Illini (12-6 overall, 8-2 in conference, and ranked No. 17 by the national coaches poll) face Wisconsin in a first round game on Thursday.
      Pepperdine, which fell to third place (10-6-3, 3-2-1) in the West Coast conference after falling to defending NCAA champion No. 6 Portland 3-1 last weekend, concludes its regular season against Gonzaga on Saturday. Former Griffin Bo Medina scored her fourth goal of the season in Pepperdine's 3-1 win over Cal State Northridge last Thursday (Oct. 26). The WCC doesn’t have a playoff but Pepperdine’s No. 24 ranking in the National Soccer Coaches Poll should earn them a post-season spot.
      Of those whose fate is already sealed, Virginia Tech (Megan Strawther, LAHS ’06) finished its season with a 3-0 win over East Tennessee State, making their record 6-8-4 overall and 1-6-3 in the tough ACC. Going into the final week, Tech had a shot to make the ACC playoffs, but ties with last-place Maryland and No. 13 Boston College sealed their post-season no-play fate.

      Few people had more effect on swimming and water polo in this area than Klaus Barth, who passed away last week after a long battle with cancer. He was 57 years old.
      Klaus was a swim and water polo coach at Wilson High, but he also coached the Seal Beach swim club – many of whose members are now on the Los Al water polo team. Yes, there was some dissension and turmoil – it’s youth sports, when is there not some dissension and turmoil? -- and there was some separation anxiety, but Klaus taught and people learned and many young people in this community are much the better for having known and been around the man.
      Nobody could be prouder of their kids than Klaus and his wife, Shari, but the truth is they have far more kids than those they raised. Klaus has left a legacy that we should all aspire to. Klaus inspired people. His students and players wanted to come back and visit him. And those same students and players wanted to be like Klaus.
      Klaus, may you rest in peace.

Click here for information on the 4th annual Klaus Barth Biathlon (benefitting brain cancer research) to take place on December 4.