Burbank doubles team advances to Pacific League semifinals

PASADENA — Burbank High girls’ tennis players Alice Avedikian and Johana Faraj-Jaar weren’t planning on being doubles partners for Monday’s Pacific League Tournament preliminaries.

Faraj-Jaar, a freshman singles player, was to be paired with decorated junior Nicole Merrit for the opening rounds of the event at Pasadena High. Merrit was half of a Bulldogs league champion doubles team last season and placed third in singles as a freshman. She was the Bulldogs’ No. 1 singles player throughout the season.

However, Burbank Coach Loi Phan had to switch things around when he was contacted over the weekend by Merritt, who had gotten worse after battling an illness.

PHOTOS: Pacific League girls’ tennis prelims at Pasadena High

“I know how competitive Nicole is and I know that something little wouldn’t knock her out,” Phan said. “She was in horrible shape last week when we were able to beat [Crescenta Valley on Thursday], but she showed up, played and won three for us.

“She texted me Saturday and she said she went to the hospital and they told her she had pneumonia. Even then she said she would try Sunday to see if she felt better, but she didn’t feel good enough. Knowing her, I know she would have been here if she could possibility make it.”

In Merrit’s absence, Phan teamed Faraj-Jaar with sophomore Avedikian, another Bulldogs singles player. Despite no experience playing together, Avedikian and Faraj-Jaar enjoyed success, winning their two sets in the prelims and earning a spot in the semifinals.

The semifinals will take place at 1 p.m. Wednesday at Pasadena High. The finals will follow shortly afterward.

“We’ve probably played together in practice or something, but never in a match like this,” Faraj-Jaar said. “I kind of expected to be playing with Nicole, so this is something different and something I really didn’t expect.”

Said Avedikian: “We know we can make it work. I felt pretty good about the way that we were able to play together.”

With league champion Arcadia possessing a wealth of talent in singles, Phan figured by pairing his best players in doubles it would give them the best chance to advance to the CIF Southern Section Individual Tournament. Only the top two singles players and doubles teams advance to the CIF tourney.

As expected, Wednesday’s singles semifinals will feature four Apaches players. In doubles, three of the four pairs are from Arcadia.

Avedikian and Faraj-Jaar, the No. 5 seed, began the day with an 8-0 victory against No. 12 Christine Nguyen and Nicole Benedicto of Burroughs. The Bulldogs duo then dispatched No. 4 Alexia Voskani and Ashley An of Crescenta Valley, 8-5.

In the semifinals, Avedikian and Faraj-Jaar will face the No. 1 pair of Rachelle Yang and Angelica Zhou of Arcadia, which won its two contests Monday, 8-0 and 8-1.

Also in doubles, the No. 8 Burroughs team of Jackie Samsell and Jenny Drechsler won one set, defeating No. 9 Angie Azarian and Emilie Siraki of Burbank, 8-2, before falling in the second round to Yang and Zhou, 8-1.

“Jackie and I are both singles players, so I think we both have that singles mindset,” Drechsler said. “So I think that really made it easier for us to play together as a team. Plus we played together before as a team against Arcadia this season.”

The No. 15 Burroughs doubles team of June Park and Sandy LeMay fell in the first round to No. 1 Sunny Ng and Tina Yueh of Arcadia, 8-0, and the Burbank No. 16 duo of Selin Davoodi and Natalie Marsoubian was defeated by top-seeded Yang and Zhou, 8-0.

In singles, only one local player was able to survive the first round. Oanh Nguyen of Burroughs, at No. 7, defeated No. 10 Britni Friedman of Burbank, 8-4, before losing to No. 2 Angela Qiu of Arcadia, 8-0. Burroughs No. 9 Ellen Masson lost to No. 8 Marie Arutyunyan of Crescenta Valley, 8-1, teammate Dominique Silva, at No. 13, fell to No. 4 Anna Qiu of Arcadia, 8-0, Burbank No. 12 Krystal Hirahara was defeated by Crescenta Valley No. 5 Marina Saroyan, 8-1, and teammate No. 11 Natalie Grigoryan lost to Hoover No. 6 Jessica Chung, 8-2.