On Saturday morning, the girls’ lacrosse team defeated the Saratoga Falcons in the SCVAL (Santa Clara Valley Athletic League) finals, clinching the coveted league championship for Paly for the first time since 2010.

Saratoga came out strong during the first half, earning three goals early on before Maya Benatar (‘16) scored for Paly. Paige Bara (‘15) drove towards the goal and scored next for Paly, but the Vikings still trailed Saratoga by only one point.

After the Falcons scored another two goals, the Vikings retaliated and both Allie Peery (‘15) and Kristen Destefano (‘14) earned points for Paly. Offensive momentum increased as Ami Drez (‘14) scored the next two goals for Paly after driving to the net.

Next, Peery juked a defender to shoot and tied up the score 8-8. The Vikings slipped into the lead for the first time after Bara put away another goal. Claire Chevalier (‘15) earned another point for Paly and the Lady Vikes finished the first half up 10-8.

The second half began with two early goals for the Falcons, but the Vikings battled back after leading scorers Drez and Peery both earned points for Paly. Peery intercepted a pass in Paly’s defensive third, passing to Bara who then assisted Chevalier to goal. Peery scored again for Paly off of an 8 meter shot, and the Vikings were up by four with a little more than eight minutes on the clock.

Paly’s momentum dropped off as the second half was winding down and the Falcons put away three more goals before the game was over, but it was still not enough to match the Viking’s points who walked off the field with a 15-13 victory.

After losing thirteen seniors last year, the Vikings were especially pleased to have won the game and with the success of their season.

“This season I think everyone was really skeptical of us because we lost so many seniors and we felt like we had really big shoes to fill,” Peery said, “We all just wanted to play really hard for our last game of the season and winning this game is something we’ve been wanting to do for a really long time.”

Head coach Jamie Nesbitt was also happy about the team’s performance.

“I feel really great about how hard we played, we came out wanting it and didn’t stop going hard until the end of the game.” Nesbitt said, “The theme for our season has been ‘everything earned’ and I think it’s definitely been that… they just really worked their butts off and really earned it today so I’m really proud of them.”