Off the field, they’re friends and fellow MVHS students. On the field, they’re players, teammates, one unit with the same motivation and goal for the season:

 “Getting to CCS,” senior Allegra Ziegler Hunts said, her friends seniors Eva Ruiz and Nikki Stuart nodding in unison.

“We have been one of the top eight teams in all of this section of California for the last two seasons, and have continued to improve,” coach Denise Eachus said.

With 12 returning seniors on varsity, Eachus and the team have high hopes this season for qualifying for and doing well at CCS. Other goals for the season include beating the reigning Gilroy Mustangs at the Longhorn tournament at Leigh High School and scoring a point against the undefeated team from Los Gatos High, who went last season unscored against.

Kristina Wang, a junior and first-year varsity player, expressed her hopes of having a more close-knit team.

“I’m hoping that we’ll be able to develop some more team chemistry,” Wang said, “that way, we’ll be able to play with one another better.”

This year, there will be a few changes. Most notably, class of 2015 alumnus Janaye Sakkas, a four-year field hockey player who now plays for University of California, Berkeley, will be missed.

“[Sakkas] was one of the major leaders on the team,”  senior Mallory Strom said. Nevertheless, Strom says they were never a team with a star player. “We were a good, well-rounded one, and we happened to have this really amazing player.”

Despite the loss of players, everyone on the team has high prospects and an overall positive outlook on the 2015 field hockey season.

The team’s first home game will be Friday, Sept. 4 at 3 p.m. against Westmont High School.