“This is our year.”
Coaches say it all the time in many sports themed movies during the climax, when they rally their players to finally win the championship game they had worked so hard for. It always seems cliché to say.

Throughout the school’s long history, there have been few sports teams that have achieved the level of success that the 2010 boys’ varsity tennis team enjoyed. At the end of the terrific season, the team finished at second in the entire nation, behind only Menlo School in Atherton.

As Troy Doles intercepted and closed his hands over the football in the most crucial play of the Saratoga-Los Gatos game on Oct. 22, not only did the junior defensive back help end the 27-year losing streak to LG, he also sealed himself into Saratoga football history.

A typical varsity team is usually dominated by upperclassmen, but this season the field hockey team, after losing the majority of its players to graduation last June, has an unusual dynamic. With eight out of the 16 team members being sophomores, the team must look increasingly to its younger players to fill in some of the gaps left behind from graduation.

A Los Gatos lacrosse player sprints toward the goal, fakes left, fakes right, then swiftly heaves a 70-mile an hour toss at the net. While most people's reaction would be to duck or run, junior Gavin Peake calmly catches the ball in the mesh of his glove.

As the sole goalie on the varsity lacrosse team, Peake is essential to the Falcons' success, yet most people forget just how much pressure rests on the shoulders of the goalie.

"Sometimes it's all lot of pressure on me if we're in a close game, then the team blames me if I'm supposed to save it, but I understand that," said Peake.

You win some, you lose some.

No one understands this more than the boys' basketball team, which saw its hopes of a CCS berth fade away in the waning seconds of a Feb. 12 game against rival Lynbrook Vikings.

Entering the crucial game with a 4-6 record, the Falcons had hopes of defeating a Lynbrook team they had obliterated 61-38 on Dec. 18 and edged 76-61 more recently on Jan. 22.

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.

Boys' water polo returns for its second year in the El Camino Division of the Silicon Valley Athletic League after dropping down a league last year. However, this year the team has several reasons to be optimistic. After years of constant coach changes, the team will finally have a stable coach for the years to come as second-year coach Christian Bonner agreed to return to coach the team.

"Even though we lost some key seniors we still have a few returning players and [Bonner] is back as the coach, so we definitely have a shot," said senior Kevin Rollinson.

Junior forward Vanessa Block hits the ball to the top corner. Senior midfielder Sam Lii stops the ball and passes to junior midfielder Ren Norris. Norris shoots—no, fakes—the ball goes in between her legs. Senior defender Anna Schroeder takes her position and strikes it in to the corner of the goal for a goal.

Plays like this are what makes Schroeder stand out on the field, but this versatile athlete offers more to her team than just a wicked slap-shot.

Although the field hockey team has not had any official games yet, the girls are already off to an impressive start, having won all three of their preseason games.

The team crushed Branham 7-0 in their third preseason game on Sept. 10. In the first half, senior midfielder Jordan Leonard scored off of a deflection from Branham's goalie, followed by a goal from senior forward Sam Li off a pass from Leonard. At the end of the first half, junior forward Shea Sullivan slipped in a goal off of an assist from junior midfielder Vanessa Block.