If there’s one word to describe varsity girls’ lacrosse (5-5 Skyline Division) season, it is redemption. The Panthers started league play slow, struggling to find their footing, going 1-4 over the first half of their league contests. But they were able to change the momentum in the middle of their season. They went on a three-game winning streak and, in their final league game, beat undefeated Woodside High School 13-12 after losing to them last year on senior night.

“I think this season we had a bit of a rough patch at the beginning, but we worked on it. And there was definitely a noticeable turnaround, especially like with this game,” junior goalie Alice Lee said. “We had a rough start, found our groove and turned it around on to them and won.”

Emblematic of their season, the girls came out slow against the Wildcats. The matchup started close, with Burlingame finding space to shoot and getting clutch groundballs. However, Woodside started to dominate and pulled ahead of the Panthers 10-5 shortly after halftime.

“This game was just so unpredictable. Woodside was completely undefeated and we had rough patches through the whole season,” said senior captain Gigi Bottarini. “I remember I was just on the field and I was like ‘oh my gosh, I really hope we get [it together]’ and I was like ‘I’m so excited for us to pull through for the last quarter’ and then we completely shifted and all of a sudden got all these goals.”

As Bottarini hinted at, the Panthers’ lineup started to click and turned the game around in the fourth quarter. The defense completely shut down the Wildcats, allowing just one goal in the entire fourth quarter. Junior Miranda Sibley wasted no time on the other end of the field, immediately making crucial plays and scoring goals to help Burlingame crawl back into the game. With additional goals from sophomore Haleh Ansari, the game was tied at 12-12. But with only a minute left, Bottarini scored the game-winning goal to put Burlingame ahead for the first time in the game.

“Then I scored the last goal that brought us up and beat them and I’ve never really done that before because I usually don’t shoot a whole lot. So it was just crazy because everyone was just so happy for each other and the crowd was crazy. I’ve never heard so many people yelling and everything,” Bottarini said. “It was just, so many emotions, and it was just such a crazy game because of how well it all happened.”

After Bottarini’s outstanding goal, Ansari attempted to run out the clock to give Burlingame the win. But with about 30 seconds left in the game, Burlingame turned over the ball and Woodside made a last-ditch effort to force the game into overtime. With one second left, Woodside had one last opportunity to score, but they couldn’t pull off the miracle. As the buzzer sounded, the Burlingame team rushed to the field to celebrate.

“You can feel the team dynamic is just getting even stronger and it’s kind of sad, that was [potentially] our last game, but like as a senior that was probably the craziest game I’ve ever played in my entire life. So it was like the perfect night to end,” Bottarini said.

Even though Burlingame was able to turn around their season, they still don’t know if they will get an opportunity to play in the Central Coast Section playoffs. Since they are not in the highest division, it makes it significantly harder to earn a spot. Lee, however, is just grateful for the opportunity to play with her team this year and pull out a win in their final game.

“[The win] feels incredible. I was the last goalie in so when everyone came to retrieve me I honestly almost burst into tears. I felt so happy that we could give this to our seniors tonight, especially because we couldn’t do it last year,” Lee said. “And now this season might keep going again and it’s another game with my friends, and I get to spend more time with them before they leave in the fall.”

For coach Phil Wang, his takeaway from this season was the team’s determination in the face of adversity.

“This season this team never gave up and that’s great,” Wang said. “They’re very competitive players, and they learned to put in the work.”