Sports

Aptos High dedicated its baseball diamond to brothers Paul and Robert Bailey on Tuesday before the Mariners’ Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League game against Soquel High.

The Cabrillo College men’s soccer team pushed its unbeaten streak to three games with a 2-1 win against West Valley College on Friday in Coast-South Conference action.  The Seahawks continue to roll in October with a 3-1-2 record in conference play. They currently sit in...

Despite having one of the best female ballers in the state, sophomore point guard Heleyna Hill, on the roster, the Cabrillo College women’s basketball team has demonstrated that it is not invincible.

Aptos, ranked 35th in the state by maxpreps.com as of Thursday afternoon, isn’t the only team around the area that is determined to accomplish some history this winter.

Gabby Giuffre and Abby Pardue shot a combined 10-of-15 from 3-point land to lead the Aptos Mariners past the Soquel Knights, 66-54, to their 22nd consecutive Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League victory on Friday night

Aptos freshman forward Natalia Ackerman (35) shoots the ball through a pair of Soquel defenders during the second half of their SCCAL tournament championship game on Feb. 18 at Cabrillo College in Aptos. Photo by Tony Nunez

The reigning Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League champion, Aptos is only a couple wins away from once again capturing the league title. With all but one starter back from last year’s squad, Aptos was expected to cruise through the league. And while the Mariners are not taking any team during the final stretch of their league season for granted, they are eagerly awaiting for the real measuring stick of their skill: the Central Coast Section team playoffs.

Aptos head coach Randy Blankenship said he’ll try to take “a couple of weeks” off to soak in the Mariners’ historic 2018 season, which featured a win in the Central Coast Section Open Division III championship game and Santa Cruz County’s first California Interscholastic Federation NorCal bowl game berth.

The Mariners were pumping their fists, dishing out hugs and taking photos with their outright Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League championship banner after downing Soquel, 63-54, in the league tournament final on Feb. 17.

Grieves, a 2009 Aptos graduate, has been hired as the new girls basketball coach, he confirmed with this newspaper on Monday evening. Grieves spent the last three seasons with the school’s boys junior varsity team, and is well acquainted with the talent-rich squad he will inherit for the upcoming 2018-19 winter season. His junior varsity team often scrimmaged with the girls varsity team over the years, and his family is ingrained in the Aptos youth basketball scene.