Sports

The Aptos High boys’ volleyball team completed its Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League season with a 12-25, 25-23, 25-23, 26-24 win over Pacific Collegiate School in the league tournament championship match at Harbor High on Friday night.

• Last year’s record: 7-4 (Central Coast Section Open Division III qualifier) • Last year’s league record: 6-1 (Monterey Bay League Gabilan division runner-up) • Last year’s MaxPreps state ranking: 226th • Coach: Randy Blankenship • Key losses: Blake Wheeler;

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.

Stephen Curry, Quinn Cook and DeMarcus Cousins brought the rain with them. With that trio of Golden State Warriors watching courtside, the Santa Cruz Warriors put on a shooting clinic to cruise to a 123-104 victory over the Stockton Kings in their home opener Wednesday night at Kaiser Permanente Arena.

Soquel erased a double-digit first half deficit to snap Aptos’ 26-game regular season win streak against Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League opponents with a stunning 52-42 upset on Friday night.

The former head coach and general manager of the four-time Arena Football League-champion San Jose SaberCats, Arbet didn’t promise to break his foot off in his player’s “John Brown hind parts,” as Denzel Washington so eloquently said while playing Boone in the 2000 football flick. But the Seahawks’ heavyweight offseason hire does expect his players to be as close to perfect as possible.

The Seahawks knocked off the defending California Community College Athletic Association champion MiraCosta College, 3-0, on May 10 at West Valley College to become the first team from Northern California to win the state beach volleyball championship.

No. 2 Aptos will play top-seeded Monterey for the Central Coast Section Division III championship at Palo Alto High.

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

REDWOOD CITY–The Aptos High girls’ basketball team has relied on its defense throughout the season.  That approach helped the Mariners bully the Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League en route to regular season and tournament titles.  It helped them get the Central Coast Section championship game for...