West Valley College Athletics

VIKING CLASSICS (This article was originally published on the West Valley College Athletics website on October 30, 2019.) The West Valley women's water polo team captured its third consecutive undefeated Coast Conference regular season championship Wednesday with a decisive 20-1 victory over Las Positas at the WVC Aquatics Center. The Vikings (19-4, 9-0 Coast) now head to the Coast Conference postseason tournament at Las Positas Nov. 8-9.... Nine players scored against the Hawks (6-9, 4-5) led by seven goals from Sierra Ceballos. Nadja Novakovic finished with four goals, two assists and five steals, while Alexis Goldin had three goals and three steals. Emily Fields and Maryam Khatoon had two goals each and Isabella Ruzsa had one. Raquel de Pinho had ten saves in goal, along with three assists.

West Valley clinched its third consecutive undefeated regular season Coast campaign with this dominant win over LPC.

Viking tennis player Abigail Salazar is the West Valley College Athletics website's Featured Athlete: https://westvalley.prestosports.com/aotw/featured_athlete

Viking volleyball advanced to the 2018 CCCAA State Championship tournament with an epic 3-2 win at Cabrillo in the regional final

Jen Fry runs the social justice education firm, JenFryTalks, LLC. The West Valley College athletic department will present a trio of interactive workshops with Ms. Fry designed to educate and empower Viking athletes, coaches and staff members through an anti-racist lens on the issues of race, inclusion, intersectionality, diversity and equity. Dialogue will be facilitated to help develop best practices with the goal of creating anti-racist community building, support for... student-athletes, coaches and staff, equitable employment searches and hiring and methods of retraining personnel. Jen Fry spent more than 15 years coaching at Elon University, the University of Illinois, Washington State University and Norfolk State University. She has conducted JenFryTalks workshops at Colgate, Dartmouth, Florida State, Northwestern, Syracuse and UCLA, among many other institutions. She has facilitated sessions for the American Volleyball Coaches Association, the NCAA, the Black Student-Athlete Summit and Women Leaders in College Sports. West Valley coaches and staff will participate in the first workshop Monday, Oct. 19, starting at 4:30pm. Viking athletes will be asked to attend one of two sessions, as designated by their coach, either Friday, Oct. 23 at 10am or Monday, Oct. 26 at 3pm. Zoom link information will be provided to athletes by their coaches.

Viking water polo goalkeeper Xavi Casabella is the West Valley College Athletics website's Featured Athlete: https://westvalley.prestosports.com/aotw/featured_athlete

VIKING CLASSICS: (This article was originally posted on November 25, 2018 on the West Valley College Athletics website.) The West Valley volleyball team is making hotel reservations in Fairfield after knocking off top-seeded Cabrillo 3-2 in Saturday's NorCal championship in Aptos. The win advances the 8th-seeded Vikings to next weekend's (11/30-12/2) CCCAA State Championships at Solano College.... After holding on for a 25-22 first-set win, the Vikings dropped sets two and three to the Seahawks 25-18 and 25-16. Playing the defense that has carried them to five consecutive match wins, WVC railed from a 20-17 deficit to take the fourth set 25-21. Cabrillo jumped out to a 2-0 lead to open the fifth set, but the Vikings surged to an 8-5 lead at the switch and then led 10-7 before the Seahawks called a timeout. Cabrillo outscored WVC 4-1 after the timeout, but the Vikings answered with two points to take back the lead 13-12. The Seahawks again rallied to make it 14-13 and were serving for the match. A Jenna Gomes kill tied it up and the teams traded side outs. A swing from Kaylin Henderson made it 16-15 and then Mapuhola Sekona split a Seahawk block attempt for the 17-15 win, sending the Vikings and the West Valley fans into full celebration mode. Sekona led the WVC stat sheet with 16 kills, while Gomes connected on 15 swings in her best offensive match of the season. Emily Mahoney was nails at the net with five solo stuffs and Hannah Reynoso contributed a pair of key service aces in the fourth set. West Valley will be joined at Solano by American River, Fresno City and Gavilan from the north and the south's Bakersfield, Cypress, El Camino and defending champion Irvine Valley. The Vikings are the #4 North seed and will take on #1 South seed Irvine Valley (20-1) Friday (11/30) at 10:00am.

Viking beach volleyball player Hannah Moore is the West Valley College Athletics website's Featured Athlete: https://westvalley.prestosports.com/aotw/featured_athlete

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As most MLB fans know, Eric Thames signed with the World Champion Washington Nationals prior to the 2020 season. Many people might not know Thames began his playing career at West Valley College. The Santa Clara native was an All-Coast, All-NorCal and All-State first baseman for the Vikings in 2006. He then played two years at Pepperdine, where he was the 2008 West Coast Conference MVP. Thames caught the attention of the New York Yankees while playing for the Waves and was se...lected by the Bronx Bombers in the 2007 MLB draft. Deciding to play another year at Pepperdine, Thames reentered the draft and was grabbed by the Toronto Blue Jays in the seventh round of the 2008 draft. He signed with the Jays and is now in his 13th MLB season. Thames' pro career has taken him from Toronto to the Seattle Mariners, the Baltimore Orioles, the Houston Astros, the Milwaukee Brewers and finally the Nationals. Between Houston and Milwaukee, Thames played for the NC Dinos in the Korean KBO League. With the Dinos in 2015, he was the KBO Most Valuable Player, only the third foreign-born player to win the league's top award. During his MLB career, Thames has 96 home runs, 235 RBI, 457 hits, 18 stolen bases and a .241/.467/.325 slash line (AVG/OBP/SLG). He had a career-best 31 homers (10th in the NL), 63 RBI and .247/.359/.518 slash line in 2017. In the 2019 NL Wild Card game, Thames led the Brewers with a homer, a double and an RBI in Milwaukee's heartbreaking 4-3 loss to the Nationals. Current West Valley Head Coach Rick Wiens, who recruited Thames in 2005, said he was, "the best offensive player I've ever seen at the level. Every time he stepped into the box, he changed the game."

Viking point guard Leland Estacio is the West Valley College Athletics website's Featured Athlete: https://westvalley.prestosports.com/aotw/featured_athlete