Friday night, the Palo Alto High School girls’ varsity Soccer team (4-2-1, 0-1-1 League) fell to Mountain View High School (7-1-1, League 2-0-0) with a score 2-1. The game did not pick up speed until the second half, when each team scored their respective goals. Though the Lady Vikes have already improved their record from last year this early on in the season, Mountain View’s speedy attacks on goal enabled the Spartans to emerge victorious.

The first half was a defensive battle, and neither team could convert its respective opportunities. Paly goalie Erin Chang (’13) made a key save with nine minutes left in the first half, when Mountain View midfielder Danna Weintraub (’14) had a breakaway through the Paly defense. Underclassmen made an impression on the Paly turf, especially midfielder Katie Foug (’15), the cross-country state meet competitor, and defender Julia Kwasnick (’14), who effectively cleared the ball from the Paly side of the field on numerous occasions. Midfielder Mayssen Labidi (’12) also contributed defensively throughout the game.

Labidi, who kicked three penalty kicks that night, is thrilled with the work ethic of her underclassmen teammates.

“At practice they work really hard to try to match our level, [and] our level is pretty good right now,” Labidi said.  “Whenever they come into a game they always put their heart into it, 100% and they try to contribute to by doing all they can.”

Less than a minute into the second half, Morgan Matthews (’15) of Mountain View sailed a right corner shot into the goal off of a smooth pass up the middle, and the Spartans were up 1-0. Paly retaliated with an offensive attack, but Labidi’s attempt on goal was scooped up by Mountain View goalie Sarah Benett (’12).

After 15 more minutes of back and forth play, Paly missed a penalty kick opportunity to tie it up. Follow-up attempts by Emy Kelty (’12) and Lily Seedman (’12) were also blocked by Benett. With fifteen minutes left in the half, both the Spartans and the Vikings missed back to back attempts on goal. But Paly kept up their charge, and Emily Brown (’12) put the ball in the back of the net off of a back heel flick from Marina Foley (’12), tying up the score 1-1.

With ten minutes remaining, Mountain View midfielder Erica Higa’s (’14) shot was saved by Chang. But confusion on the Paly side a few minutes later brought Chang out of the goal in an attempt to save, and Mountain View scored over her head.  Two missed opportunities by the Lady Vikes finished the game, and Mountain View prevailed with a 2-1 victory.

Going into the game, Labidi was well aware of Mountain View’s strength: the Spartans were the top team in league last year, and Labidi belives that putting up a good fight foreshadows good things for the rest of the season.

“Mountain View is a really good team,” Labidi said. “The next games were going to play [are] Los Gatos [and] Los Altos, and we can take this confidence that we got from this game, because we played a good game and build from that.”

Assistant coach Eric Seedman also sees a promising future for the Lady Vikes, who have implemented new practice strategies in order to strengthen their level of play going forward.

“We’re going to start practicing on saturdays, which is something we haven’t done since I’ve been with the program. which is six or seven years,” Seedman said. “We’re running the kids through pattern play and it’s starting to make a difference out there; they’ve been doing what we’ve been practicing.”