Nothing lasts forever, and the Burroughs High boys’ volleyball team was handed that difficult reality Friday night.
Having won 47 consecutive home Pacific League matches dating back to 2013, the Bears saw that streak end as Crescenta Valley earned a 22-25, 25-13, 25-17, 25-19 victory.
“They have every reason to celebrate,” Burroughs coach Joel Brinton said of the Falcons. “They play good volleyball. I have nothing but confidence for what coach (John) Nelson is doing. We need to be better. I’ll leave it at that.”
Brinton, who is one of Nelson’s former players, saw his team come on strong late in the first game.
Burroughs (5-7, 2-2 in league) was able to win it as Benji Ly’s kill was blocked out of bounds by CV’s William Allen.
But from then on, CV (17-7, 5-0) took over. Burroughs called a timeout after the Falcons took a 17-10 lead in the second game. But that didn’t make things any better as CV easily won the second game 25-13.
Burroughs looked as if might win the third game, taking a 16-15 lead on a kill by Owen Dixon.
But Jason Nelson, the coach’s son, had three kills and a key block late in the third game to push his team past Burroughs.
Burroughs got as close as 10-9 in the fourth game on a kill by Ryder Tafoya. But CV answered every challenge. Nelson, who played well during crunch time finished off the match with one of his 12 kills. He also had four blocks and an ace.
Burroughs was led by Henry Carlin, who had six kills. Benji Ly had five kills and Mark Hopkins finished with four.
The Falcons also got 10 kills from 6-foot-6 junior Logan Freemon and seven from Allen. Drew Puttler had four kills and 25 assists for CV.
