They don’t get any closer than this.
At times it looked bleak, but the Burroughs High boys’ volleyball team came to life with its season on the line.
The Bears overcame a deficit to defeat visiting Servite High, 25-17, 20-25, 19-25, 25-20, 15-12 in a CIF Southern Section Division 2 first-round matchup.
“It is awesome and the guys deserve a lot of credit. They wanted to practice tomorrow,’ Burroughs coach Joel Brinton said. “They didn’t want it to be over. I think that desire pushed us through.”
Burroughs will now travel to St. Margaret’s of San Juan Capistrano for the second round of the playoffs next Tuesday.
The Bears drew the praise of Servite coach Matt Marrujo, whose team lost in three sets to Burroughs earlier in the season in a tournament.
“Joel does a great job. Burroughs is a great program. (We always) have competitive matches. We typically see each other at a tournament every year. We knew it would be tough,” Marrujo said.
Burroughs was clicking on all cylinders in the first set. The Bears never trailed and cruised to a 25-17 win.
But the Bears lost some steam in the second and third sets as Servite roared back and appeared to be in command.
The Friars led 14-11 in the fourth set following a kill from Quentin Ryan, who led his team with 12 kills.
But Burroughs fought back behind sophomore 6-foot-5 sophomore Noah Duffield, who finished with a match-high 22 kills.
“The best part is that he’s still getting better,” Brinton said of Duffield.
Skye Alston gave Burroughs a big boost when his kill gave the Bears its first two-point lead since the first game at 18-16. Alston provided another big point at 24-19.
“This is like the highest that we’ve been in. You look at the bracket and we have a lot of private and or beach and or private and beach schools,” Brinton said of being placed in the Division 2 playoffs. “And then it is just us and West Ranch.”
In the fifth and final set, Burroughs trailed 10-9 and was just five points away from the end of the season.
But after several serving errors by both teams, Benji Ly, who had 15 kills for Burroughs, finished things to finish the match.
“We had these dips. We’ve done it before where we pick it back up. We know it starts with our serving and our passing,” Ly said.
Caiden Shrode had 44 assists for Burroughs.
