Tag: sports

The San Benito High girls soccer team has entered the most critical juncture of its season. The Haybalers entered Wednesday’s game against Salinas—the result was not available when this edition went to press—in fourth place in the Monterey Bay League Gabilan Division standings, trailing first-place Salinas, Gilroy and Christopher.

When Austin Perez suffered a second torn anterior cruciate ligament during her sophomore year—her second in three years—it would’ve been easy for her to give up athletics permanently.

As Michelle Serna prepared to take the stage to give an eight-minute speech for a TEDx Talk event in San Francisco on Oct. 29, she felt fully prepared. After all, the Anzar High senior had rehearsed her speech so many times that “it didn’t feel special anymore.” However, Serna still felt a rush of adrenaline in the moments before her speech.

The San Benito High boys soccer team knows no one expects it to finish among the top three teams in the Monterey Bay League’s Gabilan Division, which would earn it an automatic berth into the Central Coast Section playoffs. That’s just fine to the Haybalers, who won the third-place game of the prestigious Homestead Cup Tournament last Saturday.

The Anzar High girls soccer team came close to earning a Central Coast Section playoff berth last season. Although second-year coach Tony Rosa said the odds are stacked against the team this year to making the postseason, he likes the makeup of the squad.

Kayla King received her first yellow card when she was 4. She hasn’t let up ever since. The San Benito High senior continued her aggressive ways and stayed dedicated to soccer, and all of the hard work paid off when she verbally committed to play for Jacksonville University, a Division I program in Florida.

The San Benito High boys soccer team didn’t exactly enjoy its time in the Monterey Bay League’s Gabilan Division last year. The Haybalers tied with Salinas for last place in the MBL’s upper division a year after they won the lower Pacific Division. San Benito enters its second year in the Gabilan expecting to show it belongs with the league’s elite teams.

The San Benito High girls soccer team opened the season with a 2-0 non-league loss to Leigh on Dec. 1. Despite recording just two shots on goal in the second half, the Haybalers showed flashes of potential that gave fourth-year coach Becky Bonner-Leland plenty of reason for warranted optimism.

The San Benito High girls volleyball team won 30 matches for one of the few times in school history, including their first league championship since 2007. But the Haybalers simply ran into a buzzsaw in Menlo-Atherton on Wednesday in a Central Coast Section Division I playoff semifinal at Piedmont Hills High in San Jose.

The last time the San Benito High girls volleyball team was involved in a five-game match, it let a lead slip away. On Saturday, the Haybalers weren’t about to let it happen again. Not with so much on the line. San Benito won a thrilling 24-26, 25-17, 25-18, 18-25, 15-12 thriller over Palo Alto in a Central Coast Section Division I playoff quarterfinal, christening the newly renovated Mattson Gymnasium.