Burroughs has the motivation in win

BURROUGHS HIGH — The girls’ tennis teams from Burroughs and Burbank highs realize they are both in a battle for a playoff spot.

That made the cross-town rivalry showdown between the squads Tuesday that much more meaningful.

Apparently the Indians got the message about the importance of the Pacific League match.

Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, they didn’t.

Burbank fell behind early against its rival and couldn’t recover, as Burroughs earned a 12-6 victory at home.

The win avenged a 10-8 setback against host Burbank on Sept 13.

“We have been playing a lot better the last few matches,” said Indians Coach Roy Bernhardt, whose team is 4-5, 3-4 in league. “We really started playing well since our league match with Arcadia [Sept 25].”

Burbank Coach Loi Phan was not pleased with the effort put forth by his Bulldogs (5-6, 4-4).

“This is the worst we’ve played all season,” he said. “This is just not the time to be playing like we did [Tuesday] This is a horrible effort for us.”

The Indians came out of the gate like a team motivated. They won five of six sets in the first round to take a commanding lead.

Burroughs increased its lead to 9-3 after two rounds.

The Indians were paced by its Nos. 2 and 3 doubles teams. The No. 2 duo of Scout Hammond and Liz Gonzalez won, 6-3, 6-1, 6-1, and Jennifer Auproux and Kendall Capshaw won, 6-0, 6-4, 6-3.

The No. 1 team of Jenny Dao and Nicole Carothers went, 6-1, 2-6, 6-1, to earn Burroughs eight of the nine doubles sets.

In singles, No. 1 Melanie Irinco won two, 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.

Burbank received a fine performance from Mindy Ou, who bounced back from an opening 4-6 setback to win two sets, 6-4, 7-5.

“I promised the team that if they beat Burbank I would treat them to Fudruckers,” Bernhardt said. “They deserve it.”