After an eventful and memorable season, the varsity girls basketball team closed out its season Tuesday night with a 58-46 loss versus Cardinal Newman in the first round of the CIF State Championships.

“We came out and it was a very physical game,” coach Scott Peters said. “It was a dog fought and they got up on us early. We fought back in the third quarter and by the start of the fourth, we had cut the lead all the way down to two.”

Despite the loss, Peters is proud of the players for putting forth all their effort until the final buzzer.

“We could’ve easily folded up because we were on the road,” he said. “ They had a really nice crowd that was loud — a great high school atmosphere — but we fought back.”

Peters’ pride for the team extends beyond the game versus Newman.

“I am mostly proud of this team because the girls — even those who might’ve not played a lot — consistently supported the team,” Peters said. “There was great team chemistry and I think we had a lot of memorable moments throughout the season that made it a fun year.”

Senior Thea Enache also recognized the fun team environment.

“The freshmen would always stay after practice to shoot and get a bunch of reps in — running through things hundreds of times until they got it right,” Enache said. “You don’t usually see that energy from freshmen, but everyone on the team was comfortable, assertive and worked hard to be the best version of themselves.”

While the season didn’t end on a high note, the SCVAL De Anza league championship title made it one to remember.

“Our coach was telling us that the other coaches were saying that there was no way for us to win league because (Los) Gatos had an average roster height of six feet and Homestead had some heavy hitters also, but we won league,” Enache said. “We had a pretty decent record, worked really well as a team and had a fun season. I am really thankful that I got to play.”