The Palo Alto and Gunn girls' volleyball teams are both coming off tournament titles on the weekend and will need to take that momentum into tough SCVAL De Anza Division matches this week.

Palo Alto (4-0, 20-3) will host Homestead on Tuesday before traveling to face Los Gatos, both at 6:45 p.m. At stake for the Vikings will be their first-place record. Gunn (0-3, 12-12) will host Saratoga on Tuesday before visiting Homestead on Thursday, also at 6:45 p.m. The Titans are still looking for their first division victory.

Both teams performed very well on Saturday. Palo Alto went 5-0 and won the Menlo Invitational while Gunn went 4-0 and claimed the Oak Grove tourney title.

Paly's effort was noteworthy for the fact that 6-foot-5 sophomore Melanie Wade missed the tournament with soreness in her lower back. She also sat out last Thursday's league win at Saratoga.

Paly coach Dave Winn moved sophomore Caroline Martin into Wade's position for the Saratoga match and Menlo tournament with Martin performing well as the Vikings finished their week with a 7-0 mark while stretching their win streak to 18, the longest during Winn's four-year tenure at Paly.

The championship was Palo Alto's second of this season, leaving Winn to wonder when the last time a Paly team did that. The Vikings swept Menlo-Atherton (25-19, 25-21) and Mt. Pleasant (25-15, 25-11) before battling San Benito in three (25-11, 22-25, 15-5) and doing the same against Aragon (25-16, 23-25, 17-15.

"The match with Aragon was especially good as Aragon's defense and tough serving kept us on our heels most of the second and third games," Winn said.

Trailing by 13-11 in the third game, Paly rallied to tie it at 13, 14 and 15 before finally winning it on a kill by junior Trina Ohms. Palo Alto then swept Menlo, 25-14, 25-10, to wrap up the perfect day.

Senior Marissa Florant led Paly with 45 kills for the tourney with sophomore Maddie Kuppe adding 38 kills and Ohms 33.

Aragon finished second in the tourney with a 4-1 mark while Menlo-Atherton (3-2) was third. Menlo was fifth (1-4) in the six-team tourney. M-A's losses were to Paly and Aragon (21-25, 25-19, 15-10) Menlo was led by Sarah Rosales, Allie Frappier, Elizabeth Augustus, Tess Brown, Natalie Roy and Jazmin Moledina.

The Gunn girls, meanwhile, picked a good time to end a nine-match losing streak, going 4-0 to capture the Oak Grove Tournament title on Saturday in San Jose.

The Titans (12-12) opened with a 25-12, 25-16 win over Monte Vista Christian; downed Valley Christian-Dublin, 25-17, 25-20, behind Julia Maggioncalda's eight kills; rallied to beat Pajaro Valley, 18-25, 25-19, 15-6, as Teresa Skelly and Maggioncalda had eight kills each; and topped St. Francis-Central Coast Catholic, 25-19, 25-21, as Skelly produced 12 kills.

In the win over St. Francis-CCC, Gunn found itself quickly behind in both sets before battling back. This was perhaps the Titans' finest serving, passing and defensive performance of the season against the defending CCS Division V champion.

The Titans had to earn almost all of their points. Nicole Grimwood helped lead the comeback charge in the first game, serving eight straight points. In Game 2, it was freshman Anne Sommer again, leading the way with eight straight points and serving five aces during the run. Those two runs were the turning points in each game and helped propel Gunn to victory. Shelly Kousnetz had 18 assists for the match and Monica Cai also had two assists.

Menlo-Atherton (4-1, 12-4) returns to PAL Bay Division action this week with crucial first-round tests at Aragon (Tuesday) and at Woodside (Thursday), both at 4:30 p.m.

Cross country
It was quality not quantity for the Gunn cross-country team at the annual Scott Bauhs Invitational in Pleasanton on Saturday as both Paul Summers and Erin Robinson won races.

Summers won the Senior Boys' race with the fastest time of the day (15:08) while Robinson captured the Junior Girls' event in 18:17. Gunn's other award winners (top 10 in each grade level race) were Alex Johann (10th in the Senior Boys), Rory Runser (seventh in the Junior Boys), Emma Dohner (fourth in the Junior Girls), and Loubna Faiez (fourth in the Sophomore Girls).

Girls water polo
Castilleja (6-5) played host to a solid Leland team on Saturday and suffered a tough 9-8 nonleague loss. Junior Natasha von Kaeppler led the Gators, ranked No. 5 in the CCS, with three goals while senior Katie Eulau and junior Sayeh Bozorghadad both added two goals. Junior goalie Evan Cranston had 12 saves against the No. 3-ranked Chargers.

Castilleja held a 3-0 lead after one quarter before the Chargers rallied in the second quarter and trailed by just 5-4 at halftime. Leland outscored the Gators in the third period, 4-1, to pull away.