Burbank doubles team on to league semifinals
PASADENA — After two months of partaking in Pacific League girls’ tennis matches, the league’s top players met Monday afternoon in the league tournament.
Athletes from Crescenta Valley High, Glendale, Hoover, Burbank and Burroughs joined Arcadia with the goal of winning a league singles and doubles title. It turned out that Crescenta Valley and Burbank had the best performances among the area squads.
Crescenta Valley singles players Erin LeVoir and Emily Borkowski and the Falcons doubles team of Sarah Ali and Karen Ataian and Burbank’s doubles team of Meredy Gharabegi and Ashley Basco will next take part in the semifinals at 1 p.m. Wednesday at the same venue.
LeVoiropened with an 8-0 victory against 15th-seeded Stacey Frederick of Burroughs before earning an 8-2 win against seventh-seeded Adrine Babakhanyan of Glendale.
The top-seeded Ali and Ataian worked together to pick up an 8-0 win against 16th-seeded Deena Hovsepian and Lilit Manukyan of Hoover and then closed out with an 8-0 victory against ninth-seeded Aja Locke and Saniya Ibrahim of Burbank. Ali and Ataian will meet the fifth-seeded tandem of Gharabegi and Basco in a semifinal match with the winner battling second-seeded Elizabeth Lieu and Michelle Zhu of Arcadia or third-seeded Annie Tung and Caroline Young of Arcadia.
Burbank Coach Loi Phan had Gharabegi and Basco strictly played singles throughout the regular season. However, he was convinced they would prove to be a strong doubles duo. They were paired together during practice Friday and they complimented each other well Monday.
Gharabegi and Basco worked together to pick up an 8-2 opening-round win against 12th-seeded Emily Levin and Arpi Arutyunyan of Glendale and finished off with an 8-3 upset victory against fourth-seeded Alice Kim and Shanna Mofarrah of Arcadia.
“I told them that they could go out there and upset somebody,” Phan said. “I knew they could do well in doubles and they practiced well. They were relaxed and hit some shots.”
In other singles competitionfirst-round winners featured sixth-seeded Arpe Bagumyan of Hoover earning an 8-2 win against 11th-seeded Gabrielle Markari of Burbank and Babakhanyan recording an 8-6 win against Jessica Park of Burroughs.
Fifteenth-seeded Brianne Waller of Burbank dropped an 8-0 decision to Dean. Pacheco bested 14th-seeded Eugenia Bagdassarian of Glendale, 8-1, and then registered an 8-2 win against Bagumyan. Elizabeth Sanchez of Burbank, the 13th seed, suffered an 8-0 loss to Limfat.
In other doubles action, Locke and Ibrahim came through with an 8-4 opening-round victory against eight-seeded Hana Jang and Mariam Khachtryan of Glendale and seventh-seeded Jackie Phuekhunthod and Alicia Seta of Burroughs beat 10th-seeded Tamara Talverdian and Ani Pogarian of Crescenta Valley, 8-0.
Phuekhunthod and Seta then dropped an 8-5 second-round loss to Lieu and Zhu. Gabrielle Schnaid and Cindy Wee of Burbank fell, 8-0, to Lieu and Zhu in the first round.