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Girls basketball faced the Vikings at Lynbrook High School’s first quad night of four back-to-back basketball games on Feb. 6 and lost 38-31. The Matadors started the game with the initial two points, but the Vikings finished it, with a comfortable lead of seven points that bounced up to double digits during the game. The Matadors have proven successful at MVHS’ previous quad nights, but on Feb. 6, both teams fell short. The girls expected an easy win after a 55-32 victory in their first game against LHS, but the Vikings and their supportive bleachers took the lead and held onto it.
“We though we were going to win easily,” senior Anna Tedijanto said. “That was the wrong mindset.”
A minute into the first quarter, senior Hannah Pollek scored the first points of the game. The Vikings responded with a basket of their own immediately after and continued on an 11 point scoring streak the Matadors were never able to recover from.
MVHS was down twelve points in the middle of the third quarter. Senior Christina Jennings’ strong blocks and senior Kaisa Rautiainen’s steals and consistent free throws trimmed the lead to six points, with a score of 26-20. Rautiainen hit one more free throw, but LHS quickly earned another five points, leaving MVHS trailing 30-21 with only one quarter remaining.
The Matadors scored ten points to the Vikings’ eight in the final quarter, but the last minute shots were not enough to propel MVHS to victory.
“It took us a while to get ready,” Rautiainen said.
Two days after a nine point win over Homestead High School, the Matadors are slightly less confident about their future games, including next week’s game against Fremont High School.
“We should beat them,” junior Alyssa O’Neill said, “but we thought we would beat Lynbrook [High School] too.”
MVHS expects a tough few practices ahead and a more intense focus on shooting and following through. However, they believe their communication and chemistry are only getting better and attribute the loss more to an overconfident attitude than weak play.
“Going into the game, the whole team thought we would win, but the loss wasn’t that bad,” team manager junior Ally Malone said. “We didn’t lose by that much. Everyone still played well.”
The Matadors’ next home game is on Feb. 11 against Fremont High School at 7:00 p.m.
Photos by Malini Ramaiyer.
