The Palo Alto Vikings varsity girls’ lacrosse team jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, but faltered in the end losing to the Menlo Knights, 14-6.
Menlo, a perennial powerhouse, showed its skill at the Western States Tournament at Stanford, taking first place in a tournament that included teams from all over the west coast, including Paly.
The Vikings had momentum on their side, coming off their biggest victory of the season, a 13-0 shellacking of San Jose’s Harker Academy. In that game, sophomore Brianna Boyd had contributed four goals. She believed Paly would replicate the success against the Knights.
“Menlo is a really good team, but I think we could’ve beaten them.” Boyd said.
Paly was not intimidated by the Knights’ reputation, coming into the game with a lot of energy. Boyd scored the first goal of the game with a nice crease roll to put Paly up, 1-0. The Vikings seemed to catch Menlo off guard early. Palo Alto sophomore Emily Fowler also added to the effort with a nice spin move to sneak under the Menlo defense for the Vikings’ second goal.
“We came out really hard and were able to score the first two goals of the game,” Paly Coach Jen Gray said. “I think we surprised them a little.”
The Paly defense gave Menlo a lot of trouble with several steals and good positioning. The Knights missed high on several shot attempts and were having a lot of difficulty early on.
But Menlo was eventually able to turn on the offense, as midfielder Madi Shove batted a pass in to catch the Paly defense off guard. Menlo was finally able to regain the lead and with insurance, going on a 4-0 run to go into the half.
“Our game plan was to deny passes up the field, but as the game went on I think we got tired and laid off,” Gray said.
Paly junior midfielder Helene Zahoudanis got the first three goals for the Vikings to open the second half.
“Zahoudanis was really able to challenge the goal from her midfield position,” Menlo head coach Jen Lee said. “She was really poised with the ball and is a great player.”
However, the effort was not enough to keep up with the Knights offensive onslaught as Menlo continued to score goal after goal. A total of eight players from Menlo scored, with attack Julia Daly putting up four scores herself.
“I really liked how the scoring was spread out for my team. It was nice to see a lot of different players be able to touch the ball and get scoring opportunities,” Lee said.
The Vikings’ junior attack Caroline Lucas-Conwell did score a late goal for Paly to make it, 4-9.
“We really need to improve on catching and throwing up the field,” Gray said. “I think we also need to work on keeping up the defense because we let up at times.”
The Vikings next game is against Menlo-Atherton, Tuesday 5:30 p.m. at Menlo-Atherton High School.