Everyone hopes to play their best at the end of the season and the Burroughs and Burbank High girls’ volleyball teams certainly gave a good indication that they did just that Tuesday night, in the regular season finale for both teams.
In the end, Burroughs won 25-14, 22-25, 25-16, 25-22 over the host Bulldogs. It certainly wasn’t an easily won match.
“We had to work for it,” Burroughs coach Edwin Real said. “We got some key digs in those last five points. They (Burbank) hit the ball pretty hard. Everyone chipped in at the end.”
Real said his team, which received 21 kills from 6-foot-5 junior Marin Grote, liked what he saw.
“I think we’re better than we were the first time,” Real said in regards to playing Burbank. “Our team is getting better. We played in a tournament this past weekend and we lost four or five matches. Before we came in I told the girls we lost a bunch of matches, but we’re much better. We played some good teams and the games were all competitive.”
Burbank coach Karl Rojo was optimistic.
“I had a pretty good feeling going into this match,” Rojo said. “We played real well against CV, even though we lost. We told them to use that momentum to get into the full swing today and they did for the most part. They played with heart. It was minor mistakes that killed us. We couldn’t hang in there at the end.”
Burroughs (20-9 overall, 12-2 in league) won the first game without too much difficulty. Burbank kept it close at 10-8 following a kill by Melissa Daniel. But Grote had back-to-back kills to make it 12-8. Burroughs closed out the first game on a kill by Julianna Cottrell.
Burbank (16-10-3, 7-7 in league), got some help from Elizabeth Kuryan, who served up two aces to break a tie at 22. Daniel then closed it out with a kill.
Grote helped Burroughs distance itself from Burbank in the third game. Julianna Van Loo also came up big late in the fourth game for Burroughs.
Burbank jumped out to a lead in the fourth game thanks to solid play from Hailey Heath and Daniel. A kill by Daniel made it 20-17 in favor of the Bulldogs.
But Burroughs rallied. Caleigh Paster had a big block at the net and Cesera Suarez served a pair of aces.
Daniel fought back to with a pair of kills of her own to keep Burbank close. But Burroughs had too much in the end.
“I think the match was intense,” said Daniel. “Both teams played really well. We had our heart in it. It just came down to the small errors and unfortunately it was at the end of the sets and we couldn’t close out the sets. “
Both teams will learn their fate on Friday when the CIF Southern Section releases pairings for the playoffs.
Please correct “Cally”. Should be Caleigh.
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