Playing at home against St. Ignatius on Nov. 12, the No. 1-seeded Falcons hoped to win their CCS semifinal match and earn a spot in the NorCal championship.
Their season, however, came to an end following a 5-2 defeat.
“Being the No. 1 seed, we were really confident that we could win the tournament, and we were really surprised to see that St. Ignatius was actually a really strong team,” No. 3 doubles player senior Neeka Nikfar said. “We all fought hard to beat them, but in the end we lost the overall match, since their players were more consistent and aggressive that day.”
Los Gatos went on to beat St. Ignatius in the CCS final.
Earlier, the Falcons played Valley Christian in the quarterfinals on Nov. 10, sweeping the Warriors with 7-0 after beating San Mateo 6-1 on Nov. 8.
After tying with rival Los Gatos as champions of the De Anza League, the girls played a match against the Wildcats to determine their CCS seeding. The Falcons pulled off a 5-2 win to earn the No. 1 seed, giving them a bye for the first round of CCS. Despite Los Gatos changing its lineup each time they played against the girls, the Falcons adjusted and beat their biggest rival two out of three times this year.
“Beating them this time showed them that we were a stronger team,” No. 2 singles freshman Monica Stratakos said. “They kept changing their lineup with the intent of [finding] weakness in our lineup, but their defeat proved that we deserved the win. Especially after our first controversial match, this win really motivated our team to work even harder throughout CCS.”
The team played Gunn in their last league match on Oct. 31, defeating the Mustangs 5-2. The victory was led by No. 1 doubles players senior Danielle Berkowitz and freshman Varsha Horantur who won their match 6-2, 6-2. No. 3 singles player freshman Annissa Mu also contributed to the win by winning her match 6-0, 6-0.
“Since this was our season’s last league match, we all wanted to go out and play our best to finish it off with another win,” Mu said. “Despite our loss at CCS, we are looking forward to another strong season next year where we can hopefully remain League champs for the seventh year in a row.”