The St. Joseph Notre Dame Pilots managed to keep up with the Castro Valley Trojans until halftime on Tuesday, but things quickly went downhill from there. St. Joseph Notre Dame ended up on the wrong side of a tough 53-31 walloping at the hands of Castro Valley. St. Joseph Notre Dame lost against Castro Valley in their previous head to head back in December of 2014, too, but the margin this time around was much wider than the 55-24 score last time.
Defeat or not, St. Joseph Notre Dame got some senior leadership from Melanie Martinez who scored 13 points and Isabella Corral who scored 12 points.
Castro Valley's success was the result of a balanced attack that saw several players step up, but Nicole Guzman led the charge by scoring 18 points along with nine rebounds. Those 18 points set a new season-high mark for her. The team also got some help courtesy of Sofia Tom, who scored 15 points.
St. Joseph Notre Dame's loss ended a three-game streak of wins at home dating back to last season and dropped them to 6-4. As for Castro Valley, the victory got them back to even at 4-4.
St. Joseph Notre Dame won't have much time to rest: their next contest is against Holy Names at 6:00 p.m. on December 13th. As for Castro Valley, they will head out on the road to face off against Clayton Valley Charter at 7:00 p.m. on December 20th. Clayton Valley Charter presents a significant challenge as they come into the match much higher ranked than Castro Valley in California (Clayton Valley Charter is ranked 235th, while Castro Valley is ranked 499th).
