The girls basketball team finished their season with a 10-3 conference record and a successful performance at the 4A KingCo and Wes-King tournaments. They placed third in KingCo after losing 51-73 to Eastlake and winning 65-58 against Newport. The team advanced to Wes-King, where they placed in the top five and qualified for regionals and state at Tacoma Dome.

According to senior captains Eva Taylor and Jenna Troy, the girls’ success comes down to their strengths in defense and teamwork.

“This year we’ve put a lot of focus on defense, which allows us to hold teams to lower scores,” Troy said. “And us all getting along makes it really easy to play with each other and share the ball.”

Taylor also cited defense as the team’s greatest strength and said that working together is key to their success as a team.

“We have really good team chemistry,” she said.

Troy is one of only three seniors on the team, but she said that their youthful roster has not interfered with their success.

“[Other schools] have a lot more age than us,” she said. “But our underclassmen have really stepped up and showed that they can play, no matter what age they’re playing against.”

Senior Erin Mackey said that their ability to work together is due to the team being almost the same as it was last year, with the addition of freshman Colbi Zorich and last year’s swings.

“We only had two seniors graduate last year, so the fact that we’ve all played together has really helped,” Mackey said.

Zorich said that she has loved being able to play with the seniors in their last year.

“We’re like one big family,” she said. “I hope we keep this chemistry next year and everyone stays tight.”

In preparation for playoffs, Troy said the team worked on scoring more points at games. She said that even though they could make up for it with their strong defense, this was something they needed to improve before KingCo.

Troy said that the team’s energy and competitiveness would be crucial to their performance.

“Our goal is coming out with the same energy every quarter and being able to sustain how we play throughout the whole game,” she said.

Mackey also said that maintaining their levels of motivation and teamwork would be valuable to success at KingCo.

“I hope we can continue having the same energy with whichever five people are on the court,” she said.

Looking forward, Mackey said that she hopes the underclassmen will stay competitive, keep the team strong and continue to push themselves during practices and games. Troy said that she expects the team to maintain its energy and success in future years.

“Hopefully, we’ll be able to continue with how we’ve been playing,” Troy said. “In the next years, I hope we keep winning records and going to the KingCo tournament.”

The team will be playing against Kentridge in the regional playoffs on Saturday to decide their starting position in the state tournament.