Burroughs boys’ volleyball brushes off mistakes to sweep Pasadena
BURBANK — Though off the mark for much of the afternoon, the Burroughs High boys’ volleyball team was well aware of its capabilities against a young Pasadena program in a’ Pacific League match Thursday.
Indians coach Joel Brinton gave each of his players an opportunity to perform on the court and, at times, the Indians gave the Bulldogs a chance to take advantage of their miscues.
Pasadena nearly avoided a sweep with a four-point lead late in the third set, but host Burroughs rallied to win, 25-19, 25-15, 25-22, and claim its second league victory in as many tries.
“We’re trying to push and get better and we know that mistakes are part of the process,” Brinton said. “As long as we are learning from those mistakes, then we’re good. When we stop learning from our mistakes, then we have problems.”
The Indians (6-5, 2-0 in league) entered play after a sweep of St. John Bosco on Wednesday, marking four consecutive sweeps since a nonleague loss to Loyola on Feb. 26.
Burroughs extended its unbeaten league streak to 67 matches, a string that dates back to 2013.
“We learned a lot of things in that match last night,” Brinton said. “We had a chance to get some immediate feedback, so a lot of our things weren’t skill things today.
“We wanted to improve our communication on the court. It happened a little bit [and] it suffered at others, and we wanted to improve the communication off the court. The guys that were not playing did a great job with the guys that were on the court.”
The majority of Pasadena’s points came from Burroughs’ mistakes. The Indians handed the Bulldogs 37 points on unforced errors, while Pasadena tallied only 11 points from kills or blocks.
Burroughs misfired 11 times in each of the first two sets and 15 in the final game that helped give Pasadena a 20-16 lead.
The Indians outscored the Bulldogs, 9-2, in the final set to complete the sweep, backed by a trio of aces from Luke Kvarda and three kills from Connor Burroughs.
“We try to bring our own challenge,” Burroughs said. “When we make mistakes, we try to reset and get to the next point. We spend a lot of time focusing on how to reset and how to move on to the next point. Present in the moment is one of our goals to have every day. That really helped.”
Burroughs finished with nine kills and four aces, Kvarda tallied five kills and three aces and Steven Grandinetti had 22 assists.
The Indians also received five kills from Jagger Green and four aces in the first set from Ricky Kahlon.
“It was an opportunity to give a lot of our guys some rest,” Brinton said. “We had three starters out today and we were pulling starters off throughout the game trying to give them some rest.
“We just tried to put our trust in the other guys that were showing up at practice every day and to give them an opportunity to go out there and play and show them that we have faith and confidence in them to go out and do that job.”
Kahlon’s four aces set up a 13-3 lead for the Indians in the opening set, but a series of miscues helped Pasadena cut the lead to 22-18. Though the Indians won the first set, the Bulldogs outscored the hosts, 16-12, after Burroughs took the 10-point lead.
Pasadena took a 3-0 lead to start the second set and Burroughs forced three ties before the Indians broke away to take a 16-10 lead before earning the win to go up, 2-0.
The Indians received three aces from Burroughs to start the third set to establish to a 6-1 lead, but the Bulldogs came back to tie it at 13 after another series of misfires. Pasadena grabbed the lead, 20-16, after a Burroughs serving error, before Kvada tied it at 22 on a pair of aces during the Indians’ late rally.
Twitter: @ReporterVince