They don’t get much closer than they were Tuesday afternoon when Burbank High visited Burroughs in boys’ tennis.
The Bulldogs needed every point they could get to pull out a 91-85 victory in games after both teams tied with nine set victories each.
“The team did (its) part. Without our team we wouldn’t get the games and points to win,” Burbank No. 2 singles player David Kerimyan said. “We knew it was going to be close because they beat CV. They (Burroughs) are a good team.”
Burroughs (4-4 overall, 4-2 in league) won four sets in singles, something the Bears haven’t been able to do in recent years as Burbank had been led by stars Adam Ridaoui and Amrith Kodumuri. Ridaoui has graduated and Kodumuri, who is a junior, is not playing for the Bulldogs this season.
“Going into it we knew some of their good singles players had graduated, so we were hoping to do well. Our hopes were high,” Burroughs captain Miles Howell said. “There were a few places where we could have improved. Overall ,I feel we had a solid showing. There were some parts that we are going to work on in practice. Next time we play them we expect to win.”
Three sets ended up going to tie-breakers with Burroughs winning two of those sets.
In singles, Burbank No. 1 Raphael Lazaryev lost 6-4 to Burroughs No. 1 Bernard Woods, the younger brother of former Burbank High basketball star Michael Woods. Lazaryev defeated Burroughs No. 2 Zach Barry 6-1 and No. 3 player Aditya Kiran, 6-2.
Kerimyan, Burbank’s No. 2 player, lost 6-4 to Woods, won 6-1 over Barry and lost 7-5 to Kiran.
Dominic Aleman, Burbank’s No. 3 player, lost 7-6(7-5) to Woods. He lost 7-5 to Barry and defeated Kiran 7-6(8-6).
In doubles, Burbank’s No. 1 team of Blake Lewis and Vamsi Chintha went 6-3 over the Burroughs team of Bevan Maxwell and Josh Liwag. They won 7-5 over the Burroughs No. 2 team of Howell and Ari Pathak, but fell 6-0 to the Burroughs No. 3 team of Jaden Chapman and Paul Vu.
Burbank’s No. 2 team of Desmond McNeill and Harut Kelikyan went 6-2 over Maxwell and Iulin Lundberg, who replaced Liwag. The team lost 6-3 to the Burroughs team of Howell and Pathak and lost 7-6(7-2) to the Burroughs No. 3 team of Chapman and Vu.
The Burbank No. 3 team of Jason Kim and Ashot Aramyan went 6-3, 6-4, 2-6.
