With seven consecutive Pacific League titles, the Burroughs High boys’ volleyball team doesn’t get pushed to the limit too often.
Friday night the Indians had to fight their way back from a deficit before holding off visiting Crescenta Valley 25-19, 21-25, 17-25, 25-12, 15-12.
“I’m discovering as you get those, it keeps getting harder and harder to get the next one,” Burroughs coach Joel Brinton said. “I don’t know how Alabama (football) does it.”
Burroughs (7-6, 3-0 in league) started the match on fire, opening up a 7-0 lead. The Indians, which have won 46 consecutive league matches, cruised to a 25-19 win.
For as well as Burroughs played in the first game, the Indians were equally as bad in the second and third.
“We’ve been stressing that we need to do our job. In game two and game three we were not doing our job,” Brinton said. “We kind of took deep breaths.”
In a close second game, Burroughs made a few errors down the stetch that ended up being costly. CV continued the momentum in the third game, rolling to a 25-17 win.
“I feel like we got away from playing Burroughs volleyball and we got away from the basics,” Burroughs’ Jarrett Malone said. “We panicked a little bit. As soon as we re-set, we all said we’re winning this in five.”
Burroughs was re-focused in the fourth and played like it did in the first game, breezing to a 25-12 win.
That momentum carried over to the fifth and decided game. CV took an early 2-0 lead, but Burroughs fought back. Malone’s kill to make it 11-8 put the Falcons in a tough position. He finished with 17 kills to lead Burroughs.
CV fought hard to make things close, but Burroughs won the match when the Falcons inadvertently hit the ball out of play.
“It was the fastest five-set match I’ve ever been a part of,” Brinton said. “I think there was inconsistent play on both sides. They deserve credit for making us play poorly. I hope we deserve credit for affecting them. I hope next time it’s cleaner on both sides.”
Conner Ludlum had 13 kills and five aces for Burroughs. Cole Kaitz had nine kills and Levi Benitez had 40 assists. Skyler Bercini had 19 digs.
