The Lady Vikes (26-3) will advance to the Central Coast Section (CCS) Semifinals for the first time in two years, thanks to Saturday’s 43-34 victory over Leland at neutral Oak Grove High School in San Jose. This win follows Paly’s triumph, 63-25, against the North Monterey Condors (7-14) at home on Wednesday.

“It was, I think, tougher than we expected,” junior Paly guard/forward Katie Barich said. “A lot of the refs’ calls kind of fired up our team in a bad way, and I think we had to get our composure at halftime… we came out and we didn’t let their calls affect us.”

Other than a few tense minutes at various points in the game, the Vikes dominated Leland (19-9) from the get-go. Paly freshman guard/forward Rachael Pecota kicked the game off with a three-pointer in the first thirty seconds, followed up by a free throw each by senior guard Melody Gaal and senior guard/forward Megan Grant.

With 4:45 remaining, senior guard Bre Clay caught a pass from senior point Ranecia Fields’ steal to finish a breakaway layup from half-court.

Less than a minute later, however, Charger sophomore Ana Farrington completed two free throws for her team’s first points. Grant soon widened Paly’s still-considerable lead with a field goal, but Leland made another two free throws and followed up with a rebound. Pecota retaliated with a second three-point shot, and Grant took the final points of the quarter off of an assist with 1:41 to go, ending the quarter 14-6.

Notwithstanding the Viking’s strong beginnings, the second quarter was less fruitful for Paly. For a time in the middle of the quarter, Paly had three freshmen on the court, one of whom was moved up to Varsity’s CCS practice squad from the JV team. This temporary lack of leadership may have allowed Leland more chances to break the Vikings’ defense.

After an initial Paly lead, the Chargers found a steady cadence for their offense by tallying two field goals, a three pointer, and one of five free throws, some of which were very controversially awarded. Two minutes before the end of the half, Leland junior Kristen Yoshioka capitalized on a layup by nailing her subsequent free throw to bring the Chargers within one point of Paly, 18-17.

Thanks to a field goal from Grant and a layup from freshman point Kiley McDermott, the Vikings were able to bring the score to a more comfortable five-point advantage, despite scoring eight points to Leland’s 11, and closed the half 22-17.

“I think we played very excellent defense,” Paly head coach Scott Peters said. “The low point is, I don’t think we handled the pressure as well as I would’ve liked, also in the press and the half-court.”

The third quarter saw Paly reassert its authority with 12 points, three more than the Chargers. Thirty seconds in, junior Meggie Yoshioka made her first of the two free throws she scored that quarter for Leland, and senior teammate Mika Yanai followed with a field goal. Paly fired back with a full court layup with Ranecia Fields systematically threading through defenders, then with another layup from Gaal, who because of a foul turned it into a three-point play.

After a Leland time-out, Kristen Yoshioka promptly swished a three-pointer, which Fields countered 18 seconds later with a three-point shot of her own. The Vikes traded shots for the remainder, scoring two goals separated by a Leland basket, and finished the quarter 34-26.

Even with an eight-point lead, however, Leland was still too close for the Vikes to be entirely comfortable. Halfway through the final period, the Chargers came within two points of Paly for over a minute before Paly pulled away with layups from Clay and McDermott and free throws by Gaal and Pecota. Leland made only one of its five free-throws in the quarter, and the Vikings were unable to score on more than five of its own nine foul shots that period.

In the final seconds of the game, with the outcome certain, Pecota held the ball causally prior to letting it drop and leaving the court with both teammates and opponents even before the buzzer sounded. With a 43-34 win, the Vikings were free to begin planning for the all-important next game.

“We’ve been psyched for the game [against Mitty] since last year, since two years ago, ‘cause last year we didn’t get to play them,” Barich said. “Two years ago, they beat us by only 20 [points], but we were ahead until the third quarter, so we think we can take them again.”

Paly lost to Leland in 2005, 52-38, in the second round of CCS. In the 2004 CCS quarterfinals, the girls defeated Leland 62-42 before falling to Mitty in the semifinals, 60-37.

According to Barich, the team is preparing for the next match by watching and analyzing a Mitty game tape and making the most of its two remaining practices.

“If we can come up with a game plan and stick to it and execute it, then I think we can compete,” Peters said.

The Vikings face off in the CCS Semifinals against Archbishop Mitty (26-2) for the first time in two years at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 28 at Oak Grove High School in San Jose, Admission is $4 for students with valid ID and $7 for adults, with reduced rates for seniors and children.

“We’re going to take them [Mitty] on,” Barich said. “They may think that we’re not a competition, but we’re fired up and we’re ready for the game.”