Light work, no reaction. The varsity water polo teams came and conquered their double header rivalry game against Mountain View, with the boys winning 17–5 and the girls 16–2 on Thursday, Sep. 18.
“Today was a great team feeling,” boys head coach Seth Tasman said. “Everyone got in the rotation and almost every player scored on our team. That’s what it’s all about.”
After a stellar season last year finishing second in the CIF NorCal Division III finals, the boys team has only improved. The Eagles came out swinging in the first quarter, playing a very aggressive offensive and securing an early lead. Balancing out their strong offense, captain senior Milo Crosby put forward impressive blocks, leaving the Spartans in an 8–0 deficit to round out the first quarter.
“The vibes were good,” senior Colby Sims said. “We knew we could play hard and swim hard.”
Coming off their momentum from the first quarter, Los Altos added another four points to their score in the second, keeping their strong lead. The half ended with Milo blocking a last-minute buzzer-beater attempt by Mountain View, starting halftime with a score of 12–1.
“Milo’s really been leading our defense with his communication,” Tasman said. “Everything else just flows after that.”
The Eagles held their steady lead for the third quarter, despite stronger play by the Spartans, who opened the half with a point and blocked multiple attempts from Los Altos to score. But the Spartans’ energy dwindled as they were penalized to close out the third.
Through it all, Los Altos stayed supportive, cheering on their teammates and maintaining their high energy.
“I was just having fun with my boys,” Milo said. “I wanted to make sure they enjoyed it.”
The Spartans returned the energy into the final quarter, scoring two consecutive goals. However, the Eagles immediately countered with two goals of their own, freezing the score for the last minute and a half of the game.
Ultimately, Los Altos stayed ahead, defeating the Spartans 17–5.
As for the rest of the season, the Eagles are in it to win it. With a current record of 8–3, the team has high hopes for its upcoming games.
“Our team just keeps getting better,” Milo said. “And every other school’s gotten worse so it’s going to be a fun season.”
But the Eagles aren’t just focused on beating everyone else. Tasman’s current goals are to focus on how the team can improve their offense, defense, and power plays for themselves, rather than worrying about the specifics of the teams they’re up against.
“We’re worried about what we can do to control each game,” Tasman said. “We’ve been doing great defensively and we have a lot of firepower on offense.”
Looking ahead, the Eagles will play against some of their more competitive opponents in the coming weeks, including Harker on Thursday, Sep. 25, and Saint Francis on Friday, Oct. 3.
The varsity boys water polo team will face Pioneer High School at home Tuesday, Sep. 23.
But the night didn’t end there.While a 17–5 blowout may typically be hard to follow, the girls team had no difficulty doing so with their own 16–2 victory.
“We knew the game was going to be easy, so we ran it as a practice,” sophomore Kylie Parman said. “We used the opportunity to run all of our different plays, and I think we did that really well.”
The varsity girls opened their game with a strong offensive. Two goals by senior Sophia Boschken and one each by junior Ava Smith and sophomore Kylie Barkovich set the Eagles up 4–1 to close out the first quarter.
“We did a good job of communicating, especially when somebody was on the counter so we could get the ball to them,” Ava said.
In the second quarter, the Eagles held onto that momentum. Five straight goals by Los Altos — two by Sophia and one each by Ava, Kylie Parman and junior Liliana Aliashvili — and none from the Spartans pulled them up 9–1 for the half.
Los Altos kicked off the second half with two goals before Mountain View made its next, and last, move. The third quarter ended 14–2, and from there, the Eagles ran it home with a 16–2 victory.
“We knew the score gap was gonna be big, but we didn’t expect it to be this big,” Ava said.
Even with the “easy” win, according to both Kylie Parman and Ava, the team has a long road ahead to its ultimate goal of making the CCS open division for playoffs.
“We’re trying to run more of the plays our coach wants us to,” Kylie Parman said. “Obviously, this was an easy game, but in the future, we’re going to go against harder teams and that’s where the details matter.”
The girls team currently sits first in the De Anza League with a 4–0 record, and a 7–3 record overall. They next play Castilleja away on Tuesday, Sep. 23.
