The girls basketball team is looking to continue its pre-season winning ways as they prepare for the De Anza League’s (DAL) competition.

The team, made up of one freshman, two sophomores, four juniors and three seniors, has found early success through their first four games, winning a scrimmage against Saint Ignatius College Preparatory and placing second in the Dougherty Valley Winter Classic Basketball Tournament.

Last year, the Paly girls basketball team found great success in DAL play, going undefeated with a record of 12-0. Junior Skylar Burris hopes to repeat this accomplishment while improving on postseason play.

“We’re hoping to go undefeated in leagues like we did last year and make it to opens [Central Coast Selection] again,” Burris said. “Last year we didn’t really show the other schools in that division what we could do, so the plan is to prove it to them this year.”

The Paly’s girls basketball team’s season came to an end last year on March 11 when they lost to Oakland High School.

With the majority of the team made up of returning varsity players, Burris believes that the team chemistry that the players have with each other will be a key factor in their hopeful success this upcoming season.

“Because we’ve all been playing together for so long, we’ve really learned how to play off each other,” Burris said. “There’s always things to work on, but our team chemistry is hard to find in the majority of high school basketball teams.”

In addition to the experience that the girls have had playing for Paly, many have been playing together since elementary school, playing for Palo Alto Unified School District (PAUSD) middle school basketball teams, and Amature Athletic Union (AAU) teams, such as Palo Alto Midnight.

With the official DAL season set to begin on Jan. 5, 2016, Paly’s girls basketball team looks to continue their success from last season, utilizing their unique team chemistry as they take on Los Gatos High School.