Girls volleyball

BURNT HILLS, N.Y. » The Burnt Hills-Ballston Lake girls volleyball team swept Troy 25-8, 25-6, 25-9 to improve to 7-0 in Suburban Council play and 9-1 overall. Myla Dobson had seven kills, four aces and three blocks for the Spartans while teammates Kristen Langdon and Samantha Versocki combined for 10 aces. showed he could win from a bit off the pace. After allowing Outplay to show the way through six furlongs, the smooth-striding colt took over late on the turn, then rocketed through the stretch to win by 7¼.

“He’s just learning how to run,” said Baffert, “and to have a three-year-old this time of year — and the way he won the Travers and now winning this race – he is going to be a horse to reckon with.”

West Coast has made eight starts this year, three more than any other horse on last week’s NTRA ranking of the top 10 thoroughbreds.

“That was our goal, to really get on top of it because heat does many different things to you,” Hostig said. “If you get going right away, rather than doing it later, that is going to help us.”

House followed six minutes later with a goal that made it 2-0. Erin McCarthy hit a cross into the circle and House banged it past Hogan. House scored again 30 seconds later with Frank shooting the ball in and then it deflecting off House’s stick and into the net for her second goal and the game. Frank scored her second with 16:33 left in the half with another hard shot at the bottom left corner to put Saratoga up 4-0.

“I knew I worked really well with Lindsey on the forward line and I knew I always have to have my stick down,” House said. “She can always find me in the circle and that shot that she took, the third goal, was beautiful, right into the center Gun Runner and World Approval have both started five times. The remaining seven horses in the top 10 have averaged a mere 3.3 starts each. If West Coast ends up being this year’s most popular racehorse, it will be in part because of his accomplishments and in part because he was seen in public much more often than other prominent runners.

A problem with the Pennsylvania Derby is that it gives 3-year-olds another option to avoid taking on their elders before the Breeders’ Cup.

As a result, fields for the Jockey Club Gold Cup and Awesome Again Stakes, two Grade 1s open to horses three-and-up, aren’t as strong — or as compelling and my stick was right on top of it and it just found the goal. It was a really smooth goal.”

Columbia got on the board with 4:58 left in the first half. Taryn Stewart worked the ball into Saratoga territory and crossed it in to Jessy Blackburn inside the inner circle. Blackburn shot it past Saratoga goalie Kristen Rodecker to make it 4-1 heading into half time.

Columbia coach Dorothy Berrier Masiello said her team’s slow start and the grass field made it a difficult for her team to stay in the game.

“We have a tendency to warm up in games, rather than being ready at the whistle,” Masiello said.

“I think that was a lot of it. I think also we just played turf on Saturday and making the transition back to grass makes us susceptible to the bouncy ball, so I think that was a little bit of a contributing factor to it.”

The second half was an even battle between the two teams. Columbia seemed to come alive on offense and Hogan made multiple strong — as they might have been. And with its $1 million purse and newly acquired Grade 1 rating, the Pennsylvania Derby will likely be even more of a draw in the future.

West Coast and Irap were the big names in this year’s race. Other recent standouts to show up for the Parx race, and not the Jockey Club Gold Cup or Awesome Again, included

California Chrome, Gun Runner, Will Take Charge, Frosted, Exaggerator, Nyquist, Bayern, Moreno, To Honor and Serve and Alpha. saves to keep Saratoga at four goals. Saratoga had many corner chances in the second, but Hogan was a wall in the cage.

Columbia had a few chances on goal in the second, the best with five minutes left in the second half on a penalty corner. The visitors worked the ball into the inner circle, but Rodecker managed to kick the ball away and end Columbia’s chances of a second goal.

Hostig said that Hogan did a great job in the second.“We had a lot of shots on her and she was point blank just kicking them back out, so I give kudos to her and their defense there,” Hostig said. “They definitely changed something and it helped them because we had a lot of second shots in the second half.”

The Blue Streaks improved to 8-1 on the season with the win.

Frank said the wins are good for the team moral. vanned off after the finish, and was later found to have fractured a sesamoid.

The three-time graded winner, whose racing career is almost certainly over, underwent surgery Monday at the New Bolton Center.

Coal Front, narrow winner of the Gallant Bob Stakes (G3) Saturday at Parx, was later found to have suffered a non-displaced condylar fracture in his right foreleg. He also underwent surgery on Monday, and like Irap, his racing career may also be over.

Columbia seemed to come alive on offense and Hogan made multiple strong saves to keep Saratoga at four goals.

“I think it is a confidence builder because it really shows us that we can compete,” Frank said.

The Blue Streaks have only lost one game this season and in the Suburban Council every game counts if you want to go for home field advantage.

Hostig said the wins are huge for her team if they want to have that advantage.

“The more wins we have, the more we have a better chance to have home field advantage,” Hostig said. “Our home field advantage would be that we would like to go up to the dome and play on the turf, so I think that is our other extra incentive to keep winning and keep the best record we can and have the option to go up there. While this field is nice, it is not turf and that is what teams play on, so we want to win so we can do that.”