On Tuesday, Oct. 11, Burlingame girls’ golf faced off against South San Francisco High School in its last match of the season. Despite their best efforts, the Panthers fell to the Warriors by a slim margin of 231-223.

“It was not their best performance. It was really cold, and sometimes when it’s cold outside it’s hard to hit the ball,” head coach Traci Kreppel said.

Senior Brooklyn Arcenal ended with a score of 46, which is well above her typical strong results this season.

“I usually score lower, but today was kind of an off day,” Arcenal said.

Besides the weather, Arcenal’s ability to perform at a high caliber during the match.

“I’m kind of recovering from being sick, so I think it’s that, and also the weather, it’s pretty cold over here in San Francisco,” Arcenal said.

  Despite those challenges, Arcenal still identified some highlights from the match.

“I had some really good drives. Like, I could feel it just…when I hit the ball, I knew it was going to go pretty well,” Arcenal said. 

Junior Ellie Dowd ended with a score of 42, Burlingame’s lowest of the day. Although Dowd had three pars in total in the match, she was still aware that her performance dipped initially.

“In the beginning it was a little more difficult, I wasn’t playing very well… but my distance was fine,” Dowd said. 

Although the Panthers did not leave the Fleming 9 Course victorious against the Warriors, this season has been the program’s most successful to date. They ended the regular season with a 9-3 league record, finishing second place in the Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) Ocean Division.

“I think we did a really good job, and I know that we had one of the best records that we’ve had in a while, so that was really good to see,” sophomore Miranda Sibley said.

Dowd, who has consistently been Burlingame’s lowest scorer, reflected on her growth this season after Tuesday’s match.

“I’m pretty proud of it. I think I did well compared to last year,” Dowd said. 

With the regular season complete, the Panthers will now begin preparing for the PAL championships at Poplar Creek Golf Course on Friday, Oct. 21. To get ready for their biggest match, athletes have been attending additional practices and have scrimmages against other schools lined up in the next week. 

Although Burlingame has extensive experience from practices and their twelve league matches, the extended length of the PAL course may pose a new challenge.

“It’s a challenge because it’s 18 holes and we’ve only been playing nine holes this season, so endurance is definitely going to be a factor, ” Kreppel said. 

Kreppel will announce the select athletes that Burlingame will send to the championship match the week of Oct. 17. However, after several months of hard work, the athletes feel confident ahead of championships.

“I think that we are all solid players so I think we are going to do well,” Dowd said.