By Cora Chong

 

Girls Waterpolo Drowns Out Competition

By Lena Hedayat

The Varsity Girls’ water polo team had some rough games but came through successfully by the end of their first league game. On December 29-30 the ladies had the Redlands East Valley Tournament. The Varsity team played against three teams: Monrovia, Palm Desert, and King. They were only able to achieve a win during the last game against Monrovia for the second time, but the rest were unfortunate losses. The team came in fifth place overall. Starting the New Year, Eagles had a tough game against La Serna, which resulted in a loss. After the La Serna game the Varsity team had the Western Tournament January 9-10 and came in 14th place out of 32 teams, winning two games and losing three. On January 13, the Eagles went to their first league game against Beverly Hills. The Varsity team won, 10-1, and played a fabulous game. Senior and co-captain Kylie Langlois comments on the team’s progress, “I’m really excited about how our team is coming together. We’re going to be a really strong team this year (both JV and Varsity). I hope we win league. Everyone come support us!” Next, the lady Eagles had their second league game facing Torrance, and every player worked hard and helped contribute to the successful outcome of winning 9-6. Sophomore Colette Gulick put in three goals during this game and remains the leading scorer on the varsity team, having scored a total of 29 goals in the season so far. Captain and senior Haley Cox adds, “We did have a slow start, but that’s over now. We have gotten out kinks out and now we have a functional team, who is 2-0 in league. We have been 26-0 in league the past three years and I have every intention of making it 36-0. We will throttle our enemies.” Wish the ladies good luck in their league game today at 3 PM against South Torrance!

Boys Basketball Fights Hard to Win

By Andrew Gen

December 15, the Eagles played Cour D'Alane, a team from Idaho that was arranged by coach Craig Gast who lived in Idaho two years ago. The Eagles put up a tough fight against the visiting team but came up short 50-61. El Segundo was stopped short by the Cour D'Alane team's agility and 3-point shots. This showed the Eagles the amount of hard work they would need to put in against California High School. They fought hard and were able to come out on top 59-48. The following day, the team went and played in the Windward tournament first playing Price High School and Community Charter High School. But came up short in both games: (51-57) (59-65). With only two games to go in the tournament, the Eagles stayed headstrong and came out on top against Sierra Canyon 56-51 and played a tough game against South Gate and the team won again with a score of 43-40. With two wins in a row the team was fired up when they went to play against Mary Star and demolished them 75-28 at home. Playing full-court defense the team got steals and were able to break away with an early lead. 
    After triumphing over Mary Star, the team went away to play the Palos Verdes Sea Kings. The Sea Kings played a strong defense so the Eagles had to turn on their defense to be able to stay in the game. Senior Chance Cooper stated, "Playing Palos Verdes was tough because they have a very strong defense and we haven't played a team like that this season so far. The game was good practice for us to learn how to play against a team like that." The strong Sea King defense only allowed one basket to go by the end of the first quarter, making the score 2-7. The Eagles knew that they had to somehow penetrate the PV defense when they found themselves down 12-21 at the half. But when the Eagles came out of the locker room, they only allowed the Sea Kings to score one point in the third quarter and kept their defense strong in the fourth and where able to pull ahead and finish the game winning 31-26.
    With four wins in a row, the team faced their first league game against North. Unfortunately, the Eagles came up short in this high scoring game 70-85.
    Star players this season so far consist of Junior John Ryan who is racking up points, as of January 15, he has 207 points, 61 blocks and averages 13 points a game. But not too far behind in scoring, sophomore Brandon Jawato who has 193 points and averages 12 points a game. Furthermore, Chance Cooper has the highest field goal percentage of 58%. In league, Ryan is ranked the number one blocker and in the Southern Section he is ranked eighth. Go Eagles!

 

Girls Basketball Makes it to the Top of the Rankings

By Andrew Gen

December 12, the girl’s basketball team entered the Valley Christian Tournament and first played Gahr High School. The Eagles, who were down the whole game, attempted to comeback but the final buzzer rang ending the game 45-48 in Gahr's favor. On a brighter note, the girls then played St. Joseph and won 52-41 with outstanding play from senior Samantha Heyman, who scored 25 of the 52. Continuing in the tournament, the Lady Eagles played Bellflower High and pulled out a win 55-52. The final game of the tournament, the Eagles played against Mayfair but came up short 50-64. On the 26, the Eagles went to the Gahr tournament and squandered their first game against Washington High losing 29-62. Trying to bounce back from their loss, the Eagles played Dominguez High, but by the third quarter the Eagles where down 39-50. During the fourth quarter the Eagles attempted to recover, but came up short and lost the game 55-58. Proceeding through the tournament, their next opponent was Huntington Park. Entering the fourth quarter, the Eagles thought they were sure to win when ahead 43-28, but Huntington Park came back and tied it up 50-50. The game went into overtime and the Eagles were outscored with a final score of 56-64. They concluded the tournament with a game against Antelope Valley. The Eagles defeated the Antelopes 44-36. Leading up to their first league game the Eagles played Beverly Hills High School and Valencia High and unfortunately lost to both with scores of 27-64 and 44-74. The Lady Eagles looked for more luck in their first league game against North, but could not gain a victory and lost 33-63. With their record at 4-12, the Eagles look for more wins against other teams in the Pioneer League. 
    Star players for the girl’s team are top scorers Heyman, number one in the league and averaging 15.5 points a game, and freshman Lauren Sato, number two in league and averaging 11.5 points a game.

Boys Soccer Kicks it up a Notch

By Lena Hedayat

    Entering the league games, the Varsity Boys’ soccer team has had some ups and downs but overall has been playing very well. Back on Tuesday, December 16 the boys played against Gahr during the South Bay Tournament and suffered a loss, ending 1-2.  Following this game was a victory against Bishop Montgomery on Thursday, December 18 the Eagles winning 3-1. Unfortunately the varsity boys lost all three of their games in the South Torrance tournament December 20 and the 22-23, but were able to make a fresh comeback in the New Year on Tuesday, January 6 facing Peninsula, winning 4-2. On Friday, January 9 the Eagles had their last practice game before league. The boys played against Cathedral and ended with a well deserved win, the score being 2-1. The game was a close one, and the opposing team gave the Eagles a rough time, making off with some rather vulgar fouls. All in all though, it was a well-done game. The Varsity Boys’ first league game occurred five days later and did not follow through very well for the Eagles. It was a loss, 0-4, and one team member, junior Ryan Denman (sweeper), sustained a serious injury in the last part of the game. On the outcome of the season so far senior Kei Takamura comments, “The team’s pretty good this year and we had some good players join this season. I also hope Ryan’s collarbone heals well so he can play next year.” Though it was not the best start to league for the Eagles, senior Sam Nusbaum says, “Today was a little bit of a disappointing setback, but within the next couple games we will be right back on our feet.”  Go Eagles!

Girls Soccer Strikes Back!

By Lena Hedayat

    Now one game into league, the Varsity Girls’ soccer team has been doing an excellent job. They have proceeded to achieve more wins than losses, beginning with the El Segundo Tournament on December 13. The ladies played against Magnolia ending with a win, 2-0, and followed with a game facing Chaminade but unfortunately lost 1-2. The Varsity girls stepped their game up with their next meet opposing Peninsula, finishing with a tie, 3-3. Two days later on Friday, December 19 the Eagles went up against Palos Verdes and resulted in an unlucky loss with a score of 1-2. The next South Bay Tournament game facing Mira Costa ended in a loss with a score of 0-2, but the lady Eagles came through in their next meet against Santa Monica two days later with the final result being 5-1. However, the opposing team and El Segundo experienced a scuffle within the team players. Senior Courtney Hobbs commented on the team’s progress, “We’ve had a strong start to the season, and we’ve been playing really good soccer. So I hope we can keep it up all the way through league.” On Wednesday, January 14, the soccer teams had their first league game against North Torrance. The Varsity girls played a great game and came through with a strong win, the final score being 4-1. Shots were made by players, junior Natalie Barbosa (forward) with assist by freshman Amanda Romero (defense), freshman Addie Saldaña (midfielder), sophomore Kayla Sánchez (forward) with assist by junior Halima Abdelshife (midfielder), and junior Allison Reaser (forward). The game was well-played and as senior Camille Kuebler says on the result of the league game, “it was great to start out league with a win, especially because we were down three key players. The team played well and we hope to stay undefeated.” Good luck throughout the rest of league!

	Girls Water Polo	Boys Basketball	Girls Basketball	Boys Soccer	Girls Soccer
Record	9-10	8-9	4-12	3-6	8-3-1
Recent Score	Torrance 9-6 Win	North 70-85 Loss	North 33-63 Loss	North 0-4 Loss	North 4-1 Win
Next Game	Jan. 22 Milken 3:00	Jan. 21 South 7:30	Jan. 21 South 6:00	Jan. 21 South 3:00	Jan. 21 South 3:00

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