Girls Basketball defeats Leland High School 69-42
Matadors maintain their lead throughout the game
Junior and center forward Sophia Lu maneuvers past the opposition in an attempt to shoot the ball.
January 21, 2023
Varsity Girls Basketball beat Leland High School 69-42 in a tournament on Monday, Jan. 16, bringing the team’s overall season record to 13-1. After a loss against Palo Alto High School, the team lost their undefeated streak, but it regained its momentum in this game.
MVHS started off strong, ending the first quarter 22-8, and held the lead for the rest of the game. Sophomore and shooting guard Kimika Shimazaki attributes the lead to the team’s mindset, as this allowed the team to focus on cardio and team bonding.
“I really think people [did better] after the last [game, with] our comeback personality and [since we] refuse to lose,” Shimazaki said. “We incorporated that.”
However, during the second quarter, LHS managed to gain two more points than MVHS, which junior and center forward Sophia Lu believes was due to a lack of coverage of the center.
“We started off really strong and the energy was pretty high,” Lu said. “That energy goes out into the game and that’s usually when we do really well, but in the middle [of the game], the [center] wasn’t covered [and] that let Leland break through and once we fixed that, we got back hold of our lead.”
Although the team faced adversities, such as the injury of one of its key players, senior Varshini Peddinti, the team was still able to dominate over LHS. Lu attributes this to sophomore and shooting guard Clara Fan, who stepped up to a new position and paved the way for the team’s win. Fan was the game’s top scorer, scoring 18 of the team’s 69 points.
Senior, shooting guard and captain Julianna Kimm says that the team “knew what [they] were getting into” as MVHS had played LHS during summer league, so they were able to predict and counteract the opponent’s playing strategies to “shut them down and get a good lead.” Kimm hopes that moving further into the season, she can improve her individual skills and that the team can attain its goals.
“We’re hoping to carry on this momentum because we just want to keep up that lead, especially because we had such a great season last year being 12-0,” Kimm said. “I hope that we can bring the team spirit and energy and carry it throughout the whole season as we get further and further into this season and hopefully make it to CCS.”
