Girls’ varsity tennis fought hard to claim a 5-2 victory against Woodside High School on Tuesday, Sept. 26. While the absence of senior star Mila Mulready certainly left the Panthers with a challenge, the players rose to the occasion and exceeded the expectations of head coach Bill Smith.

Tuesday’s match was not anticipated to be too difficult, as Woodside is in the bottom half of the Peninsula Athletic League standings and Burlingame sits comfortably at No. 3. However, according to Smith, the matchup was crucial for the players to continue developing mental toughness through the emotional ebbs and flows of a match. 

“Players experienced some moments in the match where things weren’t going so well,” Smith said. “And then they put the foot to the floor, so to speak, of their panther mobile and did a good job.”

The No. 2 doubles team of Lexi Podkaminer and Hailey Miller impressed against the Wildcats.  The juniors swept their match 6-1, 6-0. The success on the court wasn’t new for the duo; according to Smith, they have been consistently performing well throughout the season.

“We had harder shots, better communication, better serves, a positive uplifting mindset,” Miller said.

Freshman and No. 2 singles player Shea Mulready stepped up into the No. 1 slot to fill her older sister’s shoes, claiming a 6-3, 6-0 victory.

“I think [my opponent] was a good player, but I just played my game,” Mulready said. “I put it all out there, and it worked out for me. I think I did well at fighting for every point and hitting nice, deep, topspin hard shots.”

Mindset has always been Mulready’s biggest obstacle this season. But her new positive attitude has helped her play improve in matches, she said.

Freshman Caroline Rafferty dropped her match after a hard-fought battle against her Woodside opponent. She lost the first set 3-6, came back with a 6-4 win, but ultimately lost the tiebreaker 10-5. 

“I didn’t let my opponent win; I made her fight for it,” Rafferty said. “I just [need to] improve on being consistent throughout the whole match and not just in the beginning.”

Sophomores Joelle Huysmans and Francesca Caban only played one set, but they dominated to grab an easy 6-0 win.

“I’m really satisfied with how I played today. All of my serves were really good, which is a really valuable tool to master in tennis,” Caban said. “I need to work on my backhand, because it’s my least used stroke, and since I’m using my whole body to do it, it gives me a little more strength.”

While the Panthers are definitely holding their own this season, there is still much work to be done if they are hoping to make it to the Central Coast Section tournament.

“As a group, we definitely need to work on putting the ball away,” Smith said. “We just don’t want to be making mistakes on the easiest shots, and we have to [keep] our heads in the endzone.”