Burlingame High's girls varsity water polo team edged rival San Mateo 6-5 on Tuesday, Sept. 29. The win pushed the Panthers to 6-0 in Peninsula Athletic League (PAL) Ocean Division play.

The one-goal margin carried extra weight. San Mateo beat the Panthers by one goal in overtime on senior night last season, according to The Burlingame B. Head coach Tiffany Spohrer acknowledged the stakes before the matchup.

"We're excited to come back and show them that we can be a strong team with the people we lost. … They're going to be really good competition," Spohrer told The Burlingame B on Sept. 24.

Spohrer also said the team was nervous, noting the Panthers went to overtime the last time they faced San Mateo and lost. That memory made the Sept. 29 result all the more significant for a squad that has not dropped a league game this fall.

Burlingame High School Athletics posted the final score after the game, confirming the varsity squad remained unbeaten in league play.

The tight finish against San Mateo stood in sharp contrast to the Panthers' previous outing. Burlingame routed Hillsdale 14-4 on Sept. 22, a game in which freshman Stacy Chan scored three goals and junior captain Ari Beser added two. Senior captain Elea Bernaudin won the opening sprint at the start of each quarter in that contest.

Against San Mateo, no such cushion existed. Individual scoring and quarter-by-quarter details from the Sept. 29 game were not available.

Bernaudin described the team's identity heading into the San Mateo matchup in her Sept. 24 interview with The Burlingame B.

"Varsity is a pretty small team, but we are absolutely killing it. We have such good team chemistry and we have two new freshmen who are absolutely amazing; they play club," Bernaudin said. "We all get along really well outside of the pool, and so that definitely helps us when we play inside the pool."

That chemistry held in the one-goal win. The Panthers defeated the team that had beaten them by one goal in overtime on senior night last season.

Burlingame's JV squad had an easier night, beating San Mateo 10-2.