The varsity girls water polo team lost a well-fought game against Leland on Saturday, October 17 in a high-scoring 10-13 game. The team’s previous encounter with Leland was in double-overtime in last year’s CCS Championships where the Eagles fell to Leland.

The game was intense from the start. Both teams’ defenses left players scrambling back and forth, trying to get a shot in. The Chargers were the first to score with a 2-0 lead with four minutes left in the quarter. Soon after, sophomore Annalisa Pao sent the ball flying high above the goalie to make it 1-2 during the first quarter.

The Eagles scoring trend continued as sophomore Brynn Walther and junior Claire Bourquin both scored making the score 3-2 at the end of the first quarter. Soon after, Leland scored again making it 3-3.

“I think overall we started out really strong,” senior co-captain Christina Pao said. “We knew what we were going into, which I think was really important, but I think that we started letting it get to us [and] we started getting fatigued and this wasn’t a type of game where we could ever let up.”

Although the team was feeling tired, the Eagles continued to push through the second quarter.

Leland opened the second quarter with a shot thirty seconds into the quarter. Junior Kayleigh Peterson’s shot followed soon after making the score 4-4. Later on in the quarter, junior Brynn Walther sailed a ball past the goalie to make the score 5-4.

Both teams went back and forth with scoring, escalating the energy and excitement between players. Leland then scored past the Eagles strong defense which brought the score to 5-5. A shot from sophomore Annalisa Pao then brought the score to 6-5. The Eagles got another shot in before Leland also scored, making the score 7-6. With thirty seconds left in the second quarter, Leland slid another shot past Los Altos to make the score an even 7-7.

Los Altos started off the third quarter with a strong shot from senior Julia Suh, pushing the Eagles ahead with an 8-7 lead.

The Eagles started to lose strength in the fourth quarter and allowed the Chargers to take control. A quick five-goal run from Leland put the score at 8-12. The Eagles got two more shots in, but their efforts were not rewarded as the Chargers added one more and held on to their 13-10 lead.

Despite the loss, the Eagles were happy with many facets of their game, particular when playing with a man advantage.

“Our 6-on-5 looked amazing,” Christina said. “We have been working a lot on that and we got a lot of shots off. Last year we didn’t get as many looks on 6-on-5 as we have this year which we were really happy to make that change this year.”

Their next game is against Gunn at home on October 20 at 6:45.