Girls’ water polo preview: Burbank, Burroughs hoping experienced players lead youthful squads
Both the Burroughs High and Burbank girls’ water polo teams lost their share of starters to graduation. However, the squads do possess players who have experience and have enjoyed recent success in the sport.
Coming off a productive summer are Burbank returners Kristine Khachikian, a senior goalkeeper, and Lexi Lyneis, a sophomore hole-set, who both competed in the Junior Olympics for Rose Bowl Aquatics. While Khachikian’s under-16 squad placed ninth out of 36 teams, Lynes helped her under-14 squad finish second in a field of 12.
“Getting experience playing like that in Junior Olympics is just great,” Burbank Coach Allyson Young said. “They get to play against different teams and they play a lot of water polo. Hopefully they can relate what they experienced to some of the other players on the team.”
Also competing for Rose Bowl Aquatics is Burroughs senior goalkeeper Kate Wilke, who garnered her share of attention from college programs and signed a letter of intent to Division I St. Francis University in Pennsylvania.
“That’s a really big accomplishment to be able to sign with a college like that,” Burroughs Coach Jacob Cook said. “To be able to continue to play water polo in college is pretty amazing. ...She has worked hard for that.”
With Burbank set to open the season Monday at home against Birmingham and Burroughs starting Tuesday at home against San Marino, here is a closer look at how the teams are shaping up.
BURROUGHS
The Indians (10-10 last season) are coming off a season in which they placed third in the Pacific League and lost in the first round of the CIF Southern Section playoffs to No. 1 Mission Viejo, 12-1.
Burroughs lost some key players from last season, namely senior driver Hanna Jung, a second-team all-league honoree who tallied 10 goals, 16 assists and 12 steals in league.
“The make-up of our team is going to be pretty young this year,” said Cook, who just piloted the boys’ water polo team to a playoff berth. “We have some [junior varsity] players that we moved up from last year who are now on varsity. We do have a few returners, but a lot of them are sophomores and juniors and we only have a few seniors.
“We have a huge JV team and we’ve had a lot of girls out for that. But with us being so young on varsity, I really won’t know what we have until we get into the pool and start playing. I should have a pretty good idea once we play together against real competition.”
The centerpiece to the Burroughs lineup is Wilke, who was the lone local player to earn All-Pacific League first-team honors a season ago. Playing a portion of the season with a broken finger, Wilke had 146 saves and a program-record 12 five-meter penalty shot blocks.
“Just her experience and her instincts make Kate a great asset in goal,” Cook said. “She’s played club polo for a long time and she really knows the game and her position. It’s always great to have a player in goal like that for your team.”
Burroughs’ only other returning all-league player is sophomore attacker Gwen Turla (24 goals and 18 steals), who was an honorable mention selection.
Other notable returners are junior utility Lizzy Wrobel and junior attacker Dominique Silva. A newcomer who could make an impact is sophomore utility Bianca Sanchez.
With Wilke leading the way, Cook thinks the Indians could make a return appearance in the playoffs.
“[Crescenta Valley] is going to be the top team in our league again. They have a lot of club players and they are always strong,” he said. “I think Glendale is probably going to be good as well.
“It was nice for our girls to have the CIF playoff experience last year, although it was a little rough. Hopefully we can make it again.”
BURBANK
The Bulldogs enjoyed mixed results last season, going 4-4 in league for fifth place and failing to reach the CIF playoffs.
Burbank’s biggest losses to graduation were senior two-meter defender Lala Herpetian and senior driver Gaby Aghakian. Aghakian, a second-team all-league recipient, had 32 goals, 37 steals and 23 assists and Herpetian, an honorable mention, tallied 39 goals, 33 steals and 14 assists.
“We lost just those two starters, but they both played big roles on our team,” Young said. “They were our captains and everybody listened to them, so it’s a loss in that respect. But now we have some players who are stepping up and they want to be the leaders, but they’re just not used to it.
“The good thing is that we have had a great turnout for our teams this year. For our varsity and junior varsity, we have more players than we’ve ever had since I’ve been here, which is really awesome. A bunch of players are friends and they brought some friends with them to be a part of the program. We have a large amount of freshmen.”
Also returning to try to help the Bulldogs return to the playoffs are senior attackers Stella Aghakian and Lia Ebrahimi, while Lyneis moves up from the JV team. At goalkeeper, Young said she will likely platoon Khachikian with junior Clare Griffin, who is up from the JV team.
“They are both good goalies, so I can use both of them and switch them around,” Young said. “We are also looking for other players to step up and earn spots at the other positions.”
Although league should hold a challenge, Young is expecting a step up for her squad from a year ago.
“We are hoping to be better in league this year than we were last year,” she said. “I know last year’s team played hard, but this year’s team, because they play more together, we should have better results.
“CV is always going to be at the top of our league; that’s not a surprise to anybody.”
--
Jeff Tully, jeff.tully@latimes.com
Twitter: @jefftsports