On Feb. 1 at Mayfield, the Gunn varsity girls’ soccer team gathered confidence and stood up against the Palo Alto High School (Paly) team, currently ranked number one in the Central Coast Section (CCS), but ended up with a 0-6 loss. “Paly is a really good team, so we didn’t really expect to win, but we still tried our best,” junior Megan Clendenin said.

Junior Nikki Bahlman agreed. “We just wanted to leave the field all having tried our 100 percent and feeling good about the game,” Bahlman said.

The game started with a senior appreciation ceremony for the Gunn and Paly seniors who would be playing their last game of the season. Once seniors Molly Babbington, Maya Bruhis, Megan Carothers, Nina Cragg and Rebecca Garratt received their flowers of appreciation, the coaches shook hands and the game began.

Paly started the game out with a strong offense, keeping the ball out of Gunn’s side of the field. Gunn fought back with an all-out defense, foiling Paly’s plans and constantly intercepting passes. “We tried to get to the outside a lot and work around with the ball, but we just couldn’t pull it off well enough,” Bahlman said.

Through the first half, Paly weaved through Gunn’s defense and pressed attacks from the sides, eventually scoring three goals within the first forty minutes, all with the help of Paly’s “Number 10,” senior Teresa Noyola, whom the National Soccer Coaches Association ranked High School Scholar-Athlete of the Year and National Player of the Year by Parade magazine and who has already recieved a full scholarship to Stanford. “The girl’s an All American National player and our girls fought hard, but we just couldn’t handle it,” head coach Juan Mayora said. “She was too tough and our girls weren’t prepared enough.”

Nevertheless, Gunn still put out a good defense, with more than 10 saves from junior Jessie Belfer and other steals from junior Mariah Cannon. “Lets just say it could have been a lot worse if Mariah hadn’t been there on defense, and Jessie played better than good and blocked a lot of point-blank shots,” Mayora said.

Tension rose as the referees called Paly’s third goal, although Belfer caught it outside of the goal. “The referees gave Paly a goal that didn’t even go in,” Belfer said.

The first half ended with Gunn behind three points at 0-3. Paly started out with the ball again, but Gunn managed to drive back and keep the ball on Paly’s side of the field for a while, with a near goal from Babbington. However, with the help of Noyola, Paly managed to once again gain hold of the ball and make another three goals. “They are all good players, but really, competition besides ‘Number 10’”? Belfer said rhetorically. “She’s just crazy good, and I’m just happy that I managed to play aggressively and not let in any goals that I could have blamed myself for.”

In the end, Gunn walked away from the game with an overall and league record of 4-14-1 and 2-9-0. The team played its next game against Los Gatos Feb. 4 and tied 2-2, bringing their current overall and league record to 4-14-2 and 2-9-1.