By Jim Riggio
Special to MyBurbank
Emotions can run high in rivalry matches.
The Burroughs High boys’ volleyball did not let that become a factor Friday when the Indians went on the road to face rival Burbank in a Pacific League contest.
The Indians rolled to a 25-14, 25-16, 25-13 win to sweep the season series and remain unbeaten in league.
“These guys do a good job of not building up this game up any more than any other game,” Burroughs coach Joel Brinton said. “Burbank means a lot because it is a crosstown rival, but we try to maintain a consistent effort level regardless of who is on the other side of the net.”
Burroughs (15-4 overall, 9-0 in league) now has a two-match lead over Burbank and Crescenta Valley, who are tied for second in league and still face one another again with just three matches left.
A fifth straight league title now awaits the Indians and could be achieved as soon as this upcoming week.
“These guys know we’re almost there, but we’ve had zero discussion about that,” Brinton said of the league title. “They know that when they take care of business it will happen.”
Burbank (15-3, 8-2) never led in the match, but gave Burroughs a tough fight.
“Burroughs is very good and I think the mistake we made tonight was to try to do too much too fast,” Burbank coach Patrick McMenamin said. “We made a lot of errors and Burroughs is a team you can’t do that against.”
Burroughs opened in the first game leading 9-3 before Burbank called timeout. Junior middle blocker Max Chamberlain had two of his six kills in the run.
The timeout did not help much though.
Burbank cut the lead to 9-4 on a block by Robert O’Brien. Burroughs then put together another run led by Nick Van Loo. Later in the set Burbank would get no closer than 19-11.
Van Loo had a pair off kills to push Burroughs comfortably ahead. The Indians closed out the game by taking advantage of a Burbank error.
Burroughs opened the second game leading 10-1 thanks to a pair of blocks by Tristan Martin and a pair of aces from Dalton Burroughs. Burbank fought back, however, and got as close as 18-13 following a kill by Kevin Ballas.
The Indians finished the game on an ace from Nick Van Loo.
Burbank began the third game better than the first two as it actually held ties at 1-1 and 2-2. But Chamberlain quickly changed that with a kill and a block for JBHS.
Burbank would get no closer than 8-5, following a Burroughs error.
“I’m happy with the progress we’ve made but on a night like tonight it’s obviously not enough,” McMenamin said of his third-year program. “The kids and I are patient. We want to be the best we can as soon as possible.”
Jonathan Fuentes and Nick Van Loo led the Indians with 10 kills each. Van Loo also had four aces. Ryan Van Loo had 29 assists and eight digs. Chamberlain had six kills. Dalton Burroughs and Martin had five kills each.
Willie Perryman and Dylan Anderson had three kills each to lead the Bulldogs. Peter Jang had six digs and 10 assists. Paul Shim had five digs.
