Burbank girls’ tennis maintains grip on second place
Nicole Merrit and the Burbank High girls’ tennis singles contingent led the way to a win over Crescenta Valley on Thursday.
Positioning atop the Pacific League girls’ tennis standings was solidified at Thursday’s afternoon regular season finale.
By virtue of its 12-6 victory, Burbank held on to second place in the Pacific League while holding off Crescenta Valley.
With the win, the Bulldogs finished 13-2 and 10-2 in league for second place with Burbank’s only two defeats this season coming at the hands of CIF Southern Section Division 1 sixth-ranked Arcadia, the league champion.
On the flip side, Crescenta Valley finished off its campaign in third place in league with a 9-6 record and 8-4 mark in league. The Falcons’ league blemishes came against Arcadia and Burbank.
“It’s just Arcadia who got us, but everyone else loses to them, too,” Burbank Coach Loi Phan said. “We’re a good team and now it’s time to take that momentum into the playoffs.”
Burbank defeated Crescenta Valley by the same 12-6 score earlier in the season.
As was the case the last time the pair met on Sept. 6 at Crescenta Valley, singles led the way for the Bulldogs.
Burbank finished 9-0 and only surrendered two games on Thursday.
Senior Nicole Merrit had another outstanding day, winning all three of her sets, 6-0, 6-0, 6-1.
“This is my last in-season game ever, so I’m happy with the way it ended,” Merrit said. “I think this was a good win for us and I hope we can take this into playoffs, when we get there, and prelims on Monday.”
Burbank’s Kristina Kirakosyan and Alice Avedikian also went 3-0 for the Bulldogs.
While Crescenta Valley proved to be the better team in doubles, the Falcons did not dominate as Burbank did on the singles side and finished 6-3.
Crescenta Valley’s doubles squads of Camille Gibney and Kiran Hamkins, Marie Arutunyan and Marina Saroyan and Rachel Shin and Michelle Jung all finished 2-1. Burbank’s No. 1 twosome of Johana Faraj and Elza Vardanyan swept.
“When we played Burbank the first time, we knew how strong they were going to be in singles,” Crescenta Valley Coach Sam Hyun said. “So we knew we were going to have to win as many doubles as we could. We won six, but they have a good [doubles] team that won, too. So, you have the same score as the first time.”
Burbank and Crescenta Valley will next head to Monday’s Pacific League individual preliminaries at Pasadena High at 1 p.m. The first two rounds will take place with the winners advancing to the league’s semifinals and finals back at Pasadena on Wednesday at 1.
As for the team playoffs, the CIF Southern Section team division pairings are set to be released on Halloween on the CIF’s website at 11 a.m. Burbank is slated to compete in Division II, while Crescenta Valley is in Division III.
