Paly Softball had an incredible season, excelling in many home and away games and finishing with an overall 11-9 record and a 8-6 record in league play.
The young team with four freshman, four sophomores, three juniors and one senior finished the season with 11 wins and 9 losses overall. Within the El Camino league, which consists of a large diversity of teams from schools such as Saratoga, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Fremont, MacDonald and Lynbrook, the Vikings held an impressive 4rd place in the ’24-’25 season.
The team was spectacularly able to improve their overall 8-10 record and 6-6 league record from last season, even with the loss of four seniors. This is a feat they accomplished through the standout performances of many of their returning players, including current sophomore, Kendall Butler, who won league Defensive MVP in last year’s season, current junior, Kensie Pao who made second all-league team last season and senior Riannah Soliman who was an honorable-mention player in the El Camino league awards.
But the team did not solely rely on Butler, Pao and Soliman to return with ambition and success; many of the returning and new players attacked the season head on, with the goal of improvement and achievement of an even better season than the previous one.
One new player who excelled this year was freshman, Eleanor Wells. Wells had a home run this season and according to sophomore, Laila Joshi, was an important addition to the team this year.
“She brings the energy to every game and always keeps the confidence for the team up,” Joshi said.
Through memorable wins and losses, the team fought hard during the season to achieve six mercies against teams such as Fremont, Monta Vista, Castilleja, Lynbrook and MacDonald. A mercy is when one team is up by eight or more runs after five or more equal innings.
Joshi attributes many of these wins to the team’s high energy.
“I think a huge aspect of our team is our energy,” Joshi said. “When we feel the high energy and excitement from the dugout, it helps everyone do better.”
Joshi believes that if the team keeps the good work up, they can be unbeatable.
“When our energy is up, our game is up too and when that happens, I feel like we can be unstoppable,” Joshi said.
Overall, these Vikings endured hardship and struggle throughout their season, but battled through to achieve greatness on behalf of the team. Their ability to harness wins through leadership, perseverance and great gameplay shows true promise for the future of Paly’s softball program.
