The girls’ tennis team is set for a third showdown with rival Monta Vista this season in the final round of the CCS Championships on Nov. 16 at the Courtside Club in Los Gatos.

In a turn-around season, the Falcons improved upon last year’s 1-9-0 record, finishing 9-6-0 and in third place in the El Camino League. Players pointed to game performance and team unity as sources of the turn-around.

The rhythm of competitive math has become long familiar to experienced members of the math club, and one common theme runs along each contest—they are almost all male-dominated.

Not as good as last year, but good enough.

Coach: Danny Moon, entering his fourth season as head coach

2010 Record: Runners senior Emily Williams and junior Maya Nag (each qualified for the state race last year)

2010 Recap: Although only Williams and Nag qualified for CCS last year, another key runner, junior Courtney Schlossareck, was injured. With this returning talent, the team hopes to reach state this year as team.

What is your favorite farm animal? What type of deodorant do you use?

These are just a few of the questions that sophomore Amin Mirzadegan asked his dates to determine whether he would continue dating them in SHS’ own version of the popular reality TV show “The Bachelor.”

After being sent down to the lower El Camino Division this year, the Falcons had one main goal: to earn back their spot in the upper-league De Anza division. Not only is the team on its way to winning the El Camino league, but it could also make CCS.

Currently in second place, the Falcons must win the rest of the games this season, most importantly a rescheduled game against league leader Fremont, to grab the league title.

Freshman goalkeeper Ally Nilan-Axline started her varsity soccer career off in style. In her first regular season game, she stopped many shots from Wilcox on Jan. 7, resulting in a 1-1 tie. After playing preseason on the JV team, Nilan-Axline was given the opportunity to move up to varsity earlier that week as senior Jan Iyer recovered from an injury.

"My dad had always encouraged me to do varsity and he was really happy when I got to move up. I think this is just going to be a really good team especially since I have a great defense," said Nilan-Axline.

The Pioneer defense wasn't the only thing that got shattered during Saratoga's 59-54 win against the Mustangs on Dec. 8. In addition, senior forward Nicole Gragnola broke the school record for most points in a girls' game putting up 42 points along with 15 rebounds, three steals and an assist.

As the girls' basketball season commences, the players plan to work on certain weaknesses, but overall have high expectations on how they will do this season. Coach Mike Davey is shooting high, aiming for the girls to “play as hard as [they] can, win as many games as possible and to have fun."

The team is steadily working to overcome early detected issues, such as talking to one another on defense.

"Improving on communicating on defense is important," said sophomore guard Shriya Nagpal. "But we have some amazing shooters and a lot of posts, so this will be a good season."