Burbank tennis contingent falls in league semifinals

Burbank High singles player Kristina Kirakosyan and the doubles team of Nicole Merrit and Johana Faraj were looking to break up Arcadia dominance Wednesday in the Pacific League Tournament.

In the singles and doubles semifinals at Pasadena High, eight of the 12 players taking part were from Arcadia, the Pacific League champion and defending CIF Southern Section Division II titlist.

Other than the Bulldogs players, the only other non-Apache to qualify for the semifinals was Jourdan Wallace of Pasadena.

Unfortunately for Kirakosyan and the duo of Merrit and Faraj, they were unable to earn a spot in league finals after falling in the semifinals.

Arcadia players went on to win the singles and doubles championships for the second straight season.

“Arcadia is a good team, there’s no doubt about that,” Burbank Coach Loi Phan said. “The doubles team that beat Nicole and Johana is a legit doubles team for Arcadia. They have been together all season and you could see that by the way that they played.”

Of the eight Apaches players who took part Wednesday, seven are sophomores and one was a junior.

Kirakosyan, a freshman who was seeded second, found herself in a tough semifinal match against No. 3 Wallace, a junior. Wallace was able to post a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

The loss dropped Kirakosyan into the third-place match against No. 4 Cloe Barberi, a sophomore, of Arcadia. Kirakosyan took a 7-4 lead and held on for an 8-6 victory.

“I knew I had to forget about the first [match] I played, because I just wanted to win the next one,” Kirakosyan said. “The first match that I lost was tough, so I just battled back in the second one.”

“In the first one, I popped my racket and I didn’t have another one, so I had to borrow a racket and that made it tough.

Merrit, a senior, and Fara, a junior, were teamed up for the first time Monday in the preliminaries. The pair, seeded second, struggled early on in its semifinal contest against No. 3 Angela Qiu and Sunny Ng, both sophomores, of Arcadia. Although the Bulldogs played better in the second set, they fell to the Apaches pair, 6-0, 6-2.

Merrit ended a successful tournament showing during her tenure at Burbank. The senior placed third as a freshman and teamed up with Yana Paryniuk to capture the league doubles championship as a sophomore.

In the third-place match against No. 4 Angel Pan, a sophomore, and Sydney Tran, a junior, of Arcadia, the Bulldogs tandem fell behind early, 7-2, and was a game away from elimination. But Merrit and Faraj clawed their way back to win six straight games to take an 8-7 lead. Unfortunately, the Burbank pair couldn’t complete the comeback, as it lost in a tiebreaker, 9-8 (7-5).

“I think we played better and we were more adjusted to the other players in that third-place match,” Merrit said. “We really started to feel more comfortable in the second set of the first match, but it was a little too late to come back.

“I’m happy with the way that we played today and I thought that we did the best that we could.”

The No. 1-seeded doubles duo from Arcadia, sophomores Michelle Deng and Lauren Ko, defeated Pan and Tran to win the championship, 6-2, 6-2.

In the singles final, No. 1 Rachelle Yang, a sophomore, from Arcadia defeated Wallace, 6-1, 6-4.

The top two singles players and doubles teams earned spots in the CIF individual tournament Nov. 21 at a site to be determined.

The Bulldogs players will join teammates for the CIF team playoffs, with the pairings set to be released Monday.