Local colleges: Clovis West alum Billy Griffith wins tennis tourney for Cal

Former Clovis West High star Billy Griffith picked up the biggest win of his fledgling college career, though it took a semifinal rally and a win over a Cal teammate in the final to secure the championship of the Porsche Napa Valley Tennis Classic.

Griffith, a sophomore, also earned a wild-card entry into a USTA pro-circuit event with his title run at the Cal-hosted tournament Sept. 25-27 at Meadowood Resort in St. Helena.

“It was an amazing feeling,” said Griffith, The Bee’s Boys Tennis Player of the Year in 2013 after a 63-1 run during his prep career. “In my semis match, I saved about five match points and was pretty tired but just kept playing the next point and fighting. And then it’s always hard playing a teammate, but at least we were playing in the finals, so Cal was guaranteed a win.”

That teammate was Florian Lakat, a nationally No. 36-ranked junior from France who transferred into the Golden Bears program after two seasons at Mississippi State. Griffith won the championship match 10-6, after outlasting Liam Caruana of Texas 14-12 in a semifinal.

The Golden Bears’ season continues with the UC Davis Aggie Invitational, which runs Friday through Sunday at the Marya Welch Tennis Center on the Davis campus.

Fresno State – The Fresno State volleyball team could be in trouble after kicking off Mountain West play with a home loss to San Jose State, predicted to finish last in a preseason conference coaches’ poll.

The Bulldogs – forecast for ninth out of 11 teams – fell 25-21, 18-25, 25-22, 23-25, 15-12 to the Spartans over the weekend. On the plus side, Fresno State (8-7, 0-1) already has as many wins as all of last season, when it went 8-24 overall and 3-15 in conference.

Fresno State plays a pair of road matches this week – at 6 p.m. Thursday versus Utah State (4-12, 0-2) and 1 p.m. Saturday against Boise State (8-6, 0-2).

▪ Coach Brian Zwaschka’s soccer team plays its first two Mountain West home matches at 7 p.m. Friday versus Utah State and noon Sunday against Boise State. The Bulldogs are 1-7-1 overall and 0-1-1 in the conference while being outscored 27-4. Utah State is 5-5-1 and 0-2-0 and Boise State 3-5-3 and 1-1-0.

▪ The softball team unveiled a six-game fall schedule that includes an Oct. 21 visit by National Pro Fastpitch’s USSSA Pride, whose roster includes ex-Selma High, UCLA and Team USA standout Andrea Duran. There are four games against JC teams, including Sequoias (Oct. 28) and Reedley (Oct. 30). Fresno State coach Trisha Ford’s offseason included a title-winning run as an assistant on the USA Softball Junior Women’s National Team that reclaimed the world championship with an 8-1 win over Japan on Aug. 16 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

▪ Fresno State remained No. 5 in the latest National Collegiate Equestrian Association rankings, heading into its first two matches of the season – at Delaware State and versus No. 1 Georgia this weekend in Dover.

Fresno Pacific – First-year volleyball coach Matt Terra has seen his team stumble to a 1-7 start in its first year as a full member of NCAA Division II.

The Sunbirds entered the year with four returning starters from a team that finished 20-9 a season ago, but still counts as its lone win a Sept. 19 four-setter against Dominican. The Sunbirds have a season attack percentage of .123 while opponents are hitting at a .242 clip.

Gabriela Macedo, a 5-foot-9 sophomore from Brazil, leads Fresno Pacific with an average of 2.52 kills per set and 63 total kills. Junior setter Bissie DenHartog is averaging 7.08 assists.

Fresno Pacific faces Notre Dame de Namur at 7 p.m. Thursday in Belmont and hosts Point Loma at 3 p.m. Saturday.

▪ Junior forward Jorge Chedraui became the second straight Sunbird to score a hat trick, accounting for all the offense as Fresno Pacific’s men’s soccer team won its fifth straight by defeating host Hawaii Hilo 3-1 on a wet and windy Monday night. Junior striker Joey Belzil was named PacWest Conference men’s soccer player of the week after his hat trick in a 4-0 weekend win over Chaminade. Renato Bustamante, the conference’s reigning player of the week, assisted on the last two of Belzil’s goals. The Sunbirds (5-1-1, 2-0) continue the islands trip at 6:30 p.m. PST Thursday at Hawaii Pacific.

▪ The women’s soccer team stayed unbeaten in PacWest play, winning 3-2 in overtime at Hilo on junior Brooke Bingham’s golden goal – also her first goal of the season. Fresno Pacific (4-2, 2-0) is playing at Hawaii Pacific as well Thursday.

Fresno City – Adrian Camposano (125), Jonas Gaytan (141), Martine Sandoval (149) and Mo Naser (174) won individual titles as Fresno City captured the 17-team West Hills-Lemoore wrestling tournament this past weekend. The Rams totaled 154.5 points to runner-up Mt. San Antonio College’s 146. Sacramento City (116), Cerritos (115) and West Hills (76) rounded out the top five. Fresno City was hosting Sierra and West Hills in a meet Wednesday night.

▪ The Rams’ volleyball team is 7-4 and ninth in the state after going 2-2 over the weekend. Sixteenth-ranked Sierra and No. 15 Delta defeated Fresno City, but the Rams rebounded and defeated Butte and No. 11 Feather River at American River. Niyesha Brown leads the team with 98 kills. The Rams opened Central Valley Conference play Sept. 23 and swept Merced. CVC play continued Wednesday night at Sequoias.

▪ Fresno City’s women’s soccer team remained the No. 1 squad in the land in the latest National Soccer Coaches Association of America JC Division III rankings. The Rams are 7-0-3 heading into a 3 p.m. Saturday home match against Ventura. … The men’s team was 24th in state RPI after a 1-1 tie with No. 14 Feather River on Tuesday. Jose Ramirez scored unassisted in the 21st minute for the Rams (4-4-4), who get back to CVC action at Taft at 3 p.m. Friday.

Et cetera – UC Merced’s Sofia Rios (Madera South) was named Cal Pac Conference runner of the month. The reigning conference Runner of the Year won the Bobcat Invitational 5K on Sept. 12 in a season-best 19:18 and was 51st in 19:40 earlier in the month at the UC Irvine Invitational.

▪ Ex-Sequoias men’s and women’s basketball coach Tom Gilcrest will be inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame during a night of events beginning at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 8 at Porter Field House. In nine seasons as men’s coach, he was 143-110 with two state championships. He guided the women’s team to a 35-0 record and its first state title in 1986-1987. In 15 seasons overall, his teams went 399-93. Other inductees are ex-Assemblywoman Connie Conway, Hanford businessman Chuck Forsythe and cross country runners Thomas Valles, Johnny Samaniego, Jose Cardenas, Damacio Diaz and David Diaz. The runners came to COS after starring on the 1987 high school team profiled in “McFarland, USA.”

This story was originally published September 30, 2015 at 10:50 PM with the headline "Local colleges: Clovis West alum Billy Griffith wins tennis tourney for Cal."