By Rick Assad
It was quick and it was certainly expected when the Burbank High boys’ volleyball team hosted Glendale on Friday afternoon.
One hour after the start of the match, the Bulldogs handed the Nitros a 25-20, 25-15, 25-19 setback in a Pacific League encounter.
Burbank played solid defense, passing was on point and seemingly every player contributed something on the floor.
There were a few that stood out and include senior Jun Angel, junior Michael Becker and junior Brandon Chong.
Burbank’s head coach is Brandon Villaflor, and he was duly impressed by his club.
“Our goals today was starting off with a better energy, staying disciplined, and remembering our sense of our standards when we’re playing,” he said. “I thought our match today was awesome. We had all around contributions, which was great to see and seeing how hard our guys work in practice and getting to show it on the court. We were aggressive and had much more serving runs.”
Meanwhile, the Nitros (0-7 and 0-6 in league) had just seven players available, so this means only one player was on the bench. That’s really tough sledding.
The third game saw the Nitros, who haven’t won a single set all season, march in front 3-1 on Becker’s hitting error.
It was knotted at 7-7 on a kill from Becker but the Bulldogs (3-9 and 1-8 in league) forged ahead 14-10 on junior Finian Cassada’s winner.
Cassada’s ace made it 16-12 and a push from Angel increased Burbank’s margin to 18-12.
Becker’s tapper saw the home team slide ahead 19-15 and an ace from senior Noah Lam made it 21-16.
The Bulldogs led 24-17 on a spike from Chong and Angel’s shove clinched the set and match.
The opening set witnessed Burbank lead 4-1 on a push from senior Caiden Kai Abarabar.
Consecutive kills from Becker made it 6-4 and 7-4 and a Chong rocket increased the margin to 8-5.
Angel’s service ace pushed the cushion to 11-5 and Chong’s tapper made it 14-7.
The Nitros drew within 17-13 on a hitting miscue from Burbank senior Tyler Tran.
Back-to-back strikes from Chong made it 19-16 and 20-16 and a kill from senior Farkhat Taishev made it 22-18 as Glendale needed a stoppage in the match.
Chong’s push saw the Bulldogs climb ahead 23-19 and Chong’s ace made it 24-19. Tran’s laser was the final point of the set as the Bulldogs led one game to none.
The middle set was tied at 2-2 on an ace from Glendale’s Rein Villarama and his teammate, Nigel Starr, made it 7-3 with a kill.
Burbank came within 8-6 on a kill from Chong and 8-7 on another spike from Chong.
Taishev’s hit made it 11-9, Chong’s ace saw the advantage swell to 15-9 and Chong’s winner increased the lead to 16-9.
Angel’s rocket made it 19-12 and it became 21-13 on Cassada’s kill. Becker’s spike made it 24-13.
When Lam added a dagger, the Bulldogs took the game and were one game away from the sweep.
