It has been quite some time since a team in the Pacific League defeated Arcadia High in tennis.
It hasn’t happened since Burroughs High defeated the Apaches in 2014. Tuesday afternoon it nearly happened again.
But just when it looked as if Arcadia might go down, it rallied to top host Burbank High 83 to 80 in games after both teams won nine sets each.
“I knew they had some strong singles, so we knew we had to play really close in singles to get wins over their No. 3 singles and win enough games in case the scenario came up,” Arcadia coach Damon Lieu. “A couple of our players were a little rusty because we just came back from Spring Break.”
The match came down to the doubles set between Burbank’s No. 1 team of Yash Desai and Adonis Basco against Arcadia’s No. 2 team of Aaron Hong and Stanley Hsu.
In a great battle, the Apache pair prevailed 7-6(7-2).
That gave Arcadia (16-5 overall, 9-0 in league) its ninth set victory. Burbank had led 9-5 at one point before Arcadia rallied and won by winning more games over the eighteen sets that were played.
“We knew it was going to come down to our set. We knew it was going to be close because last time we lost 10-8 (as a team). We knew we could push them and that’s what happened,” Desai said.
Basco added his thoughts on the final set.
“After we won to get to 6-6, honestly having everyone around me didn’t get me nervous at all. Some points we just, unfortunately, didn’t get,” Basco said.
Burbank won six of nine sets in singles as freshman Amrith Kodumuri and junior Adam Ridaoui swept their sets.
Kodumuri went 6-3 over Arcadia’s Luke Feng, 6-0 over William Cao, and 6-1 over Will Wu.
Ridaoui went 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 over the same trio.
Burbank No. 3 singles player David Kerimyan was swept, going 0-6, 2-6, 2-6.
In doubles, Desai and Basco won 6-3 over Arcadia’s No. 1 team of Bryce Wong and James Liu. Desai and Basco won 7-6(7-4) over Arcadia’s No. 3 team of Jason Li and Owen Xu.
Burbank’s No.2 team of Chris Krikorian and Mark Lim went 7-6(7-5) over Wong and Liu. They lost 6-1 to Hong and Hsu and 6-4 to Li and Xu.
Burbank’s No.3 doubles team of Simon Akopyan and Dominic Aleman went 3-6, 1-6, 4-6.
Burbank’s record is now 8-2 overall and 7-2 in the league.
