The girls’ lacrosse team has two major rivals. In skill, it’s Menlo School, but in spirit, Palo Alto High School (Paly) is their main rival.

To prepare against Menlo, the team conducts situational plays along with one-on-one plays. “We do have certain people match up against others based on skill, strengths and weaknesses,” senior captain Paige Lin said.

Paly is not a rival athletically, but is a rival in spirit. “Paly’s our rival, just because they’re Paly,” sophomore Lizzy Burhenne said. According to Lin, the team participates in a pasta feed before games to boost their morale and is naturally more pumped just because it’s Paly.

The team’s record against Menlo is 0-1. “It was a really close first half, but then we just fell into a hole that we couldn’t get ourselves out of,” Lin said. They lost 10-17. According to Burhenne, they would be able to win against Menlo if they just get over their intimidation and have a very good playing day. Their record against Paly so far is 1-0. Both Lin and Burhenne agreed that Paly’s team is not playing very well because they lost 0-10 in their first game.

This year’s badminton team’s major rivals are Lynbrook and Monta Vista, simply because, according to sophomore Angela Yang, they are the best in the league.

The team was supposed to play Lynbrook on April 4, but “we didn’t because it was [their] spring break,” senior Jon Lin said.

This season, the team played against Monta Vista once, and won. According to Yang, “this was like the first time in a long time that we beat them.”

The badminton team doesn’t specially prepare for matches against Lynbrook or Monta Vista. According to Lin, they practice and dedicate themselves to badminton every day. “We practice, we try, we work,” sophomore Vivian Shen said.

To get the team pumped up about the game, the players are supposed to dress up for the game, but according to Shen, they don’t. “It’s just too much of a hassle sometimes,” Shen said. “And people just forget.”

Throughout the season, “we just have fun and if we win, we win, if we lose, we try harder next time,” Yang said.

The boys’ tennis team’s main opponent every year has been Palo Alto High School (Paly) because the skill levels of the teams are nearly equal.

So far in the season, the tennis team has gone against Paly twice. Once in a league match where they lost 3-4, while the other was a separate championship tournament in Fresno where they won 5-2.

Before a match against Paly, the team warms up with their regular stretches, and if they win a match, according to senior Alex Klein, they usually go out to dinner especially after an unexpected or hard win. “We pretty much stuff ourselves full with bagels before a game,” senior Freddy Chen said.

The team plays a game called “ASS” before games to get them pumped up about it. It’s a volley game where people stand between the service and base line and hit soft hits to each other. If a person misses three times, they must walk back to the service line, bend over and expose themselves as targets to their teammates.

Even though Paly is a rival, “they’re rivals...but they’re more like rival friends,” Klein said.

Mountain View vs. Los Altos

Gunn vs. Palo Alto

St. Francis vs. Bellarmine

Menlo vs. Sacred Heart Prep

Saratoga vs. Los Gatos

Saint Ignacious vs. SH Cathedral

Menlo-Atherton vs. Woodside

Homestead vs. Fremont

Monta Vista vs. Lynbrook