The Matadors huddle together in the center of the court as captains and seniors Cynthia Hom and Leslie Ligier lead the team cheers. Tensions ran high as the weight of qualifying for the upcoming CCS games rested on the athletes’ shoulders.

“It’s CCS,” Hom said. “If we lose, we’re out of the draw. There was more pressure today then there normally is, but our team dealt with it and we played pretty well so I’m really proud.”

On top of the added pressure, this was the team’s first game against Gunn HS, and they weren’t sure what to expect from their competitors.

“We knew that they had some pretty strong players but we weren’t really sure what it would be like,” Hom said. “[Not knowing what to expect in the game] put more pressure than normal because normally, we know who’s exactly on their team so we can get get ready for that, but this match we just came and prepared to play well.”

MVHS doubles players performed exceptionally, providing three wins for the Matadors. Hom and sophomore Brooke Young led the doubles matches with a quick victory. The other doubles matches soon followed. The singles courts took much longer, with Ligier finishing out the games for the Matadors with a 2-0 loss. Despite the loss, the Matadors were able to pull out a victory with their first finishing matches, going near perfect in the other six.

With the final score of 5-2, an MVHS win, the team celebrated their progression to the CCS quarterfinals against Palo Alto HS and hope to keep up their momentum for future games.

“We’ve pretty much always made CCS and it’s nice [to make CCS my senior year],” Hom said. “It’s like a perfect storybook ending. This season we are almost undefeated – we only lost one match – so I hope we continue that same trend and keep playing well.”