It was going to be a Good Friday for either the Burbank or Burroughs high boys’ volleyball team.
But both sides had to wait until the evening to find out who would come away victorious when the two sides met at Burroughs with first place in the Pacific League on the line.
The eight-time defending league champion Indians made a statement early and virtually never looked back, winning 25-5, 25-11, 25-18.
“I thought we had all of the elements that a good team has and we discovered their weaknesses early on and exposed them,” Burroughs outside hitter Diego Rosal said. “We knew there was going to be a big crowd, but we didn’t let it get to us. We just treated it like any other game and executed well.”
Burroughs (9-5 overall, 5-0 in the league) clearly saw Burbank (10-4, 4-1) in perhaps its weakest performance of the season.
“As much as we got lucky, I’m not surprised to see our performance like this because we had a great week of practice,” Burroughs Coach Joel Brinton said. “It’s nice to see when you work hard in practice and see the results on game day.”
Burbank coach Karl Rojo was frustrated to see his team lose as easily as it did to Burroughs.
“Everything was just off today. The serving was off, the hitting was off, the communication and the setter middle communication was off,” Rojo said. “We just couldn’t find our rhythm and when we did build some momentum we killed it by serving into the net or something else.”
After Burroughs breezed through the first two games, Burbank fought back in the third and looked more like the team people are accustomed to seeing.
“That third set was more of what we expected. For them to pick it up and bounce back, I don’t think any of us were surprised. That’s what expected the whole time,” Brinton said of Burbank.
Burbank took a 14-13 lead in the third game after a kill by Rory Rickey. He led Burbank with four kills.
But Burroughs came back moments later led by Cole Kaitz, who had a team-high 17 kills.
Burroughs went on a 5-0 run after the two teams were tied at 16, making it 21-16.
Burbank was unable to answer back.
Burroughs received 10 kills from Rosal. Jose Solano had 27 assists, Sam Tipton had 16 digs and Michael Rumfola had three aces and 13 digs, all for Burroughs.
Burbank received three kills from Jonathan Ragheb.
