On Tuesday, September 23, the varsity girls water polo team took on Los Gatos High School in its third game of the season. The Wildcats defeated Los Altos 5-1.

Los Gatos quickly ran up the score, but the girls worked hard to strategize their plays and make sure that their defense was strong.

“We played really good defense, I have to say, we definitely were able to push them out,” co-captain senior Ya’el Weiner said. “We made it hard for them to play.”

Since the team graduated three of its main scorers, one of its major strategies has been to take advantage of opposing teams by using a “6-on-5” play. A 6-on-5 play is used when one of the players on the opposite team gets an ejection and the team is consequently up one player.

“We’ve worked on [6-on-5 plays] a lot during practice, where we have multiple plays and work on them a lot for a good 20 minutes at the end of every practice,” co-captain Christina Pao said. “Just to try and get those easy goals.”

However, a lack of an effective offense also played a role in the game.

“I think a lot of times we get stuck and nothing really happens and we just get the ball stuck on side or our drives aren’t going through,” Ya’el said.

Many of Los Gatos’ players graduated last year, which made it harder for Los Altos to figure out how the Wildcats would play. However, as the game progressed, the Eagles managed to shut Los Gatos’ offense down during the second half.

“I think once we started to adapt offense and defense to their skill level and players we were really able to shut them down,” Christina said. “We actually have a lot of moments of brilliance but we can’t convert those into goals and we aren’t as aware.”

Los Altos plays its next game at Saratoga on Thursday, September 25.