Arcadia High doubles too much for Burbank tennis
BURBANK — The reigning co-Pacific League champions faced one another Thursday when the Arcadia High girls’ tennis team visited Burbank.
With Arcadia ranked No. 10 the CIF Southern Section Division II and the beneficiary of some talented incoming freshmen, the Bulldogs braced for a tough battle at home.
The Apaches proved to be a formidable force in doubles, winning eight of nine sets to turn back Burbank, 13-5, in the first league meeting of the season between the two squads.
PHOTOS: Burbank girls’ tennis outscored by Arcadia
Coming into the match, Burbank Coach Loi Phan knew Arcadia (7-0, 2-0 in league) had a strong doubles contingent. So, the coach decided to play the Apaches straight up and not move some of his singles players to doubles.
“We just decided to play them straight up,” said Phan, whose team is 4-2, 2-1. “The truth is that their doubles is that much better than ours and maybe if I do stack one of the doubles teams they would win three and we could get that if we leave our players in singles.
“We are looking down the line and we want our singles to improve and get the experience because we are going to need them when we play teams like [Crescenta Valley], Hoover and Glendale. The league is going to be tight for those second, third and fourth spots and we have to be ready.”
Although the Bulldogs won just one set in singles, two of the sets were close and could have gone Burbank’s way, as it lost one 7-6 (8-6) and the other, 7-5.
The No. 1 Arcadia doubles team of Tina Yueh and Minta Janopas swept in relatively easy fashion, 6-1, 6-0, 6-1, and the No. 3 duo of Aubrie Weissbuch and Allison Limfat took two, 6-2, 6-3, before Limfat gave way to Michelle Gu, who helped notch a 7-5 victory.
The lone win in doubles for the Bulldogs came from their No. 3 tandem, as Miriam Ayvazyan and Emilie Siraki won, 6-3.
“This being the first round we kind of wanted to see what exactly Arcadia had and how strong they were,” Phan said. “We just don’t have the talent in doubles to keep up with them.”
The lone sweep of the afternoon for the Bulldogs came with their No. 1 singles, Lilit Vardanyan. The reigning All-Area Singles Player of the Year had to work, but still swept her three sets, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4.
Burbank was able to get one other set win in singles from Nicole Merrit, 6-0.
“When I walk out on the court I expect every team we play to have at least some good singles players,” Vardanyan said. “I knew that Arcadia was going to have some good players so I just wanted to go out there and do the best that I could to try and win.
“Since I have never seen some of them play I just had to kind of see how they were early on and adjust and listen to my coach.”
Last season, the Bulldogs and Apaches split their two matches and shared the Pacific League championship. Burbank won a share of its first league title since 2002, when it was a member of the Foothill League.