Burroughs’ Ryan earns All-CIF first-team volleyball honor
Not overly vocal on the court, Burroughs High girls’ volleyball player Danielle Ryan is more of a strong, quiet leader.
It was the senior outsider hitter’s leadership that helped spark the Indians to a successful season, which included the program’s first Pacific League championship in three years as well as a quarterfinal run in the CIF Southern Section Division II-A playoffs.
Ryan was recognized for her accomplishments when she was named an All-CIF Division II-A first-team honoree after the first teams for all 10 divisions were released Monday.
Ryan is the first Burroughs girls’ volleyball player to earn All-CIF accolades since 2012, when junior middle blocker Caitlin Cottrell was a Division II-A first-team selection.
“Danielle is more of a quiet type of player and she leads more by example,” Burroughs Coach Edwin Real said. “She doesn’t say a lot on the court and she’s not one of those rah-rah kind of players. But that doesn’t mean that she’s not as intense or doesn’t want to win as much as a player who yells and screams a lot.
“Danielle is more of a player who leads by what she does on the court. She is not one who is going to let her emotions get the best of her.”
Ryan adds her latest award to her list of accomplishments this season, which included earning co-Pacific League Player of the Year honors with teammate Marin Grote.
“I really don’t think about winning awards or anything like that,” said Ryan, who committed to San Francisco State. “This season, I just wanted to finish up my senior year as strongly as I could.”
Although Ryan excelled throughout the season, it was in league play that she really shined. Ryan had 120 kills in 12 league matches, including 16 kills against Arcadia. She helped Burroughs to a perfect 14-0 league record, which included sweeps in 12 of 14 league contests. The Indians surrendered just four games in league.
“Getting an honor like All-CIF just shows that all of Danielle’s hard work has paid off,” Real said. “It seemed like this year she was just so motivated in wanting to make this a good year for Burroughs volleyball.
“She just worked so hard in practice. She would take the feedback and just go with it.”
Burroughs (20-10) began the CIF playoffs by earning sweeps against Oxnard Pacifica and Bonita. The Indians were knocked out of the playoffs in the quarterfinals in five games by Serrano.
“It was a good year for Burroughs volleyball,” Real said. “And Danielle was a big part of that.”
Senior outside hitter Kaitlin Morely of Louisville was voted the division’s player of the year.
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Jeff Tully, jeff.tully@latimes.com
Twitter: @jefftsports