On Thursday, September 7, Los Altos girls varsity water polo defeated Palo Alto 14-8 to win their second league game of the season.

In the first quarter, Los Altos seniors Julia Santos and Brynn Walther quickly put goals on the board. A beautifully lobbed shot over the head of the goalie by Julia and a long-ranged shot by Brynn got the Eagles out to a quick start. The Vikings had many opportunities to score but hit the crossbar on three different attempts. Junior Sydney Lee, assisted by sophomore Alesia Piercy, added to the tally to make it 3-0 in favor of Los Altos at the end of the first quarter.

Los Altos continued to dominate during the second quarter as well. Julia bagged two more chip goals against the Vikings and Brynn added two more long-ranged shots. Palo Alto was unable to respond to the Eagle’s performance and the first half ended with Los Altos holding a massive 8-1 lead.

“We had a lot of communication going on which I think helped,” junior Alex Warren said. “Our defense translated to really good offense, just creating an overall good playing experience.”

In the third quarter, Brynn and Alesia added two more goals to the score count, and as it increased, more and more Los Altos starters left the game. Paly would take advantage of this late in the third and in the fourth quarter by scoring 7 goals. It was too little too late, because Los Altos continued to dominate on both sides of possession and stifled the lackluster Paly attack.

Los Altos hopes to build on the success and improve upon the consistency of Thursday’s game.

“We need to maintain our level of intensity we had in our first half throughout the entire game,” Alex said. “[If] we play like that, we’ll be alright.”