The Palo Alto High School boys’ water polo team (10-11, 7-3) fell 11-10 to Monta Vista High School (5-5, 3-3) yesterday on Senior Night at Gunn High School.

In their last home game of the season, the Vikings celebrated their eight seniors: Kevin Bowers, Justyn Cheung, Luke Coleman, Cameron Khan, Christian Laurence, Samir Kothari, Ryan Reed and Winston Rosati.

Coach Brandon Johnson expressed his admiration for the departing seniors.

“It is a great group of guys, three of whom are starters,” Johnson said. “Having those older guys with the experience in games and practices with the younger guys that are coming up helps us for the future. They are a good example of what we are going to want to have in the future.”

Despite having five different scorers on the scoresheet, the Vikings were unable to take down Monta Vista. Senior co-captain Kevin Bowers was disappointed with the loss and attributed it to a deviation from the game plan.

“We didn’t play our game,” Bowers said. “We usually play a defensive game and try to keep the score low. But this game was a shootout, and Monta Vista can shoot the ball pretty well, so they managed to put us away.”

Despite playing competitively in the second and third quarters, the Vikings suffered a faulty opening and fourth quarter, when they were outscored by a combined score of five to one. Johnson thought that the slow start was detrimental to the Vikings’ chances.

“We really didn’t come out firing in this game,” Johnson said. “We played down to our opponent’s level instead of making them play up to ours.”

According to Jozefov, despite the loss, the Vikings’ season remains in their hands and getting first place in their league is not impossible. Rosati also echoed these sentiments.

“It was a tough loss, but the season’s not over,” Senior co-captain Winston Rosati said. “Now we just have to recover from this game.”

The Vikings’ next game is at 6:45 p.m. next Tuesday, Oct. 27, at Los Altos High School.