Water Polo

Courtesy of Katie Tasman
The Los Altos High girls water polo team commemorates its CCS final win. Front: Sydney Lee. Middle, from left: Alesia Piercy, Madi Musso, Kayley Gould, Cynthia Yee. Back: Assistant coach Danny Buzzetta, Silke Tuyls, May Jiang, Sydney Johnsen, Emily Zhu, Olivia Cairns, Naomi Barkan, Shreya Juneja, Emma Sayar, Alex Warren, assistant coach Seth Tasman and head coach Katie Tasman.

A year after winning the school’s first Central Coast Section title in girls water polo, Los Altos High has won a second – again beating rival Mountain View in the final.

That doesn’t make last week’s 8-6 win any less special to coach Katie Tasman, who acknowledged the challenges that come with defending a championship.

Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier

Mountain View High’s Jeremy Noel, above, looks to shoot against Lynbrook.

As the newest member of the Santa Clara Valley Athletic League De Anza Division, the Mountain View High boys water polo team approached this season without expectations.

“We came in with the mindset of, ‘Let’s test it out and have fun,’” junior Tony Nardelli said of taking on the difficult De Anza a year after winning the SCVAL’s easier El Camino Division. “We didn’t have any pressure or stress – there’s nothing to lose.”

COURTESY of AMBER ALLEN-SAUER
Los Altos resident Archer Sauer, shown playing water polo for Homestead last fall, recently made the Olympic Development Program’s Pacific Zone Youth Team.

Los Altos resident Archer Sauer has started on the path to his dream of making the U.S. men’s Olympic water polo team. The Homestead High sophomore recently made the Olympic Development Program’s Pacific Zone Youth Team.

Acceptance in the program is highly selective; only 14 boys in each zone, comprising 22 counties, make the cut each year.

Courtesy of Mark Warren
The Los Altos High girls water polo team is all smiles after winning the CCS Division I final.

The Los Altos High girls water polo team went 0-3 against Mountain View in the regular season, but the Eagles beat the rival Spartans when it mattered most – in the Central Coast Section Division I final.

Second-seeded Los Altos held on for a 9-8 win over No. 1 Mountain View Saturday morning at Independence High, where both teams sought their first CCS title.