Three eighth grade winter sports teams ended their seasons in January after losses in their Delphic League Tournaments. Boys soccer, girls soccer, and girls basketball all made it to semifinals before they were defeated.
Girls Basketball
The eighth grade girls’ basketball team lost 43-20 to undefeated Sierra Canyon in the semifinals of the Delphic League tournament.
Harvard-Westlake had an overall record of 4-5 for the season. The team won their first two games against Brentwood and Oaks Christian. HW then lost three games against Windward, Paul Revere, and Campbell Hall. The team placed second at the Marlborough tournament and later lost to Sierra Canyon. They finished the season with victories against Village Christian and Oaks Christian.
“The team bonded really well over the season. One of our captains wasn’t able to come, along with our assistant coach. Regardless of our decrease in morale, we all improved as a team and we were actually pretty close in the beginning. They just kind of pulled ahead,” Spectrum Staffer Fallon Dern ’23, a player for the team said.
Girls Soccer
Eighth grade girls soccer lost 1-0 in Semifinals to The Wesley School, a private school in North Hollywood.
“We had a few chances to score but nothing went our way. The starters played practically the entire game. And they had many shots on goal, but all but the first were stopped,”goalie Natalie Antin said.
Wesley scored about 15 minutes into the first half, and neither team scored for the rest of the game.
“The Wesley team had two star players, Gisele and Alyssa, one in sixth grade the other in eighth. Both are national players and applying to HW,” Antin said.
Girls soccer had an overall record of 3-3-1. The team began their season with a tie to the eventual number one seed in the tournament, Paul Revere. Due to missing players during the week of the dance performance at the middle school, they lost to Viewpoint and Marlborough. The team went on to beat Chaminade and then Wesley. Their victory over Wesley happened when Wesley’s two national-level players weren’t at the game. After one last victory over Village Christian and their loss to Wesley, the team finished as the second seed in the tournament.
Boys Soccer
Eighth grade boys soccer lost 3-0 to Sierra Canyon in semifinals. One player for Sierra Canyon scored all of the all of their team’s goals in the second half. Goalie and Spectrum Staffer Will Sherwood ’23 explains why he thinks the team lost.
“We made a couple of mistakes on defense, and that allowed them to have easy shots and score, Sherwood said.
The team had an overall record of 2-2-2. They started their season with a tie at Chaminade, and then beat Oaks Christian in their next game. HW then lost to Paul Revere and beat Village Christian. When HW played Sierra Canyon in a home game, the teams tied 1-1, but lost in semifinals of the Delphic League tournament a week later at Sierra Canyon.
