Girls basketball strives to improve in a higher league November 13, 2014 — by Jenny Qian and Ellen Wu Sport Name: Girls’ basketball Coach name: Mike Davey Last year’s record: 21-6 Sport Name: Girls’ basketball Coach name: Mike Davey Last year’s record: 21-6 Key losses: Dharini Ramaswamy, Trishika Shetty, Tivoli Sisco Key returning players: seniors Samie Davey and Sara Parden Key additions: sophomores Aryana Goodarzi, Rachel Davey, Jenny Qian Star player: Mikayla Davis Key statistic: Moved up to the highest division (De Anza/A Division) Quote from coach: “We have three key losses and at the same time we’re elevated to the De Anza division. We aim to be competitive in the [De Anza] division despite being the smallest school in the league and advance to CCS,” Davey said. Season Expectations: Since they’re in the De Anza Division, the Falcons are aiming to work even harder during practices and to remain as competitive as they were last year despite losing three key players. Replacing these three players are sophomores Aryana Goodarzi, Rachel Davey and Jenny Qian, who will be playing small forward. “We don’t have a lot of seniors [on the team], but they have a lot of great leadership,” Davey said. “Because of it, we’ll execute our plays well, and it’s a high learning level when you have a lot of sophomores to.” Even though this year’s team is younger, Davey and the girls are sure that with the leadership from upperclassmen, the team will compete in every game.“A big difference is that we won’t have Dharini this year, so we will have to rebuild what we’re doing,” Davey said. “I think we are a much more balanced team, we can score inside and score outside. We’re a good team, but we are just playing in a much better league.” 6 views this week