PLAYOFF PREVIEW: High School Basketball and Soccer Playoffs Set to Begin This Week

The Los Gatos High girls soccer team picked a bad time to lose its first home game in three seasons.

After first place Mountain View High tied Palo Alto—it was the second straight draw against a sub .500 opponent in the past week for Mt. View—the opportunity was there for Los Gatos to swoop in and secure the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division title.

However, just as Paly made Mt. View sweat things out during the final day of the regular season, Gunn High-Palo Alto played the part of spoiler quite well.

Gunn defeated Los Gatos 2-1, giving Mt. View the narrow edge it needed to claim first place honors in the De Anza title race.

Senior striker Brianne Medved scored her 10th goal of the season for the ‘Cats in the home defeat.

Los Gatos finished the regular season with a 11-3-6 record overall and a 6-1-5 mark in De Anza play and will now turn its attention towards the Central Coast Section playoffs.

Play begins on Wednesday afternoon at home for the ‘Cats as they host San Mateo High (11-4-2).

Los Gatos drew a No. 6 seed and will play No. 3 seeded Aptos on Saturday at a neutral venue if they can get by San Mateo tomorrow.

For the Los Gatos boys soccer team, the path to the playoffs was a much different journey. Backed by a strong preseason, the ‘Cats secured enough wins in non-league play to gain an invite into the postseason party.

Los Gatos (8-5-5, 2-5-5) won’t have long to celebrate the playoff berth as a tough task lies ahead in the opening round of the CCS Boys Soccer Division II draw.

No. 7 seeded Los Gatos will play at No. 10 seed St. Francis High-Mountain View on Wednesday night.

The game is set to start at 6 pm.

On the hardwood, the Los Gatos boys and girls basketball teams will begin playoff action later on this week.

The boys finished a brutal season with an 1-11 mark in De Anza play. Because of their better than .500 record in non-league play, Los Gatos snuck in with a losing record.

Los Gatos will play at Woodside High Thursday night at 7 pm.

The girls basketball team, led by head coach Xavier Cook and junior center Dana Webster, finished up the regular season with back-to-back tough matchups against first place Palo Alto and second place Gunn.

Although the ‘Cats dropped both games, the group will be more than a little battle tested when quarterfinal play begins in the girls basketball Division II bracket.

Los Gatos is seeded fourth in the group. Three West Catholic Athletic League schools round out the top four seeds. Presentation High-San Jose in the number seed in the division.

The quarterfinals begin on Saturday afternoon.