league in their win against Los Altos, the girls varsity water polo season came to an abrupt end with a 15-8 loss to Leland High School in the first round of CCS. After winning their league for the first time in 18 years, the 14-2 Vikings could not capitalize as the 4th seed of the Open Division of CCS.  Junior attacker Delilah Kaplinsky said the intensity shifted from the last game of the season to the first game of playoffs. “The level of competition changed a lot, as we were going from Division I at the end of our season to open for CCS,” Kaplinsky said. “Knowing that we would be going up against all the really good private school teams and being put in an underdog situation gave us the option to either play down or step up to the challenge with more intensity and motivation than before.” Kaplinsky also said the team’s mentality during a tough stretch was instrumental in their success throughout the season and into the championship game. “In the middle of the season, we started playing worse than expected and losing games,” Kaplinsky said. “At this point, we all knew that it could go one of two ways. Either we could all continue the bad trend and let the season go to nothing, or pick ourselves back up and play harder and better than we had at the beginning. With this goal in mind towards the end of the season, we all agreed to hold each other accountable for our actions and show up for the team. For the following games, it was clear that we were going to go in as a team, play as one and win.” Senior Katie Spitzer said the team prepared intensely for the game. “The week before CCS we did a lot of practices focused on running our defensive plays,” Spitzer said. “The biggest challenge was trying to anticipate what the other team would do based on the information we had about their team.” Spitzer said she encourages next year’s team to use this season as a lesson to continue their success. “A big takeaway for me is the importance of playing as a team because as soon as that became our main focus that is when we started playing at the level that I knew we could,” Spitzer said. “For next year’s team, they should keep up the momentum we built this season and work to go even farther in CCS.”