Indians recover in CIF win

BURROUGHS HIGH — The Burroughs High girls’ volleyball team looked dominating in the first game of its playoff contest against Maranatha.

But the Indians went from overwhelming to overmatched in a hurry, losing the next two games.

Luckily for Burroughs, it was able to regroup, winning the fourth game and closing out the contest in the fifth game in a 25-10, 25-27, 19-25, 25-9, 15-8 CIF Southern Section Division II first-round match Tuesday at home.

The win puts the Indians (15-6) into a second-round match at 4 p.m. Thursday at Diamond Bar.

Burroughs Coach Edwin Real said his team seemed to lose its way in the second game.

“We lost our focus, and we starting making a lot of mistakes,” said Real, whose team placed second in the Pacific League. “We had rotation violations, we had serving problems and we made a lot of other errors in the first game.”

The Indians seemed to elevate their play in the crucial fifth game against the Minutemen (10-9), who finished third in the Olympic League. Burroughs went on a 5-0 run in the game to take a 12-6 lead.

“That was our sixth fifth game this season,” Real said. “We’ve been there, so the girls know what to expect.”

The Indians received a strong effort from outside hitter Megan Stephenson, who had a match-high 22 kills. Teammate Amanda Hernandez had nine aces.

Things started off well for the Indians, as they breezed through the first game with purpose.

But they weren’t able to keep up that momentum in the second game. Burroughs did make a run late to tie the score at 25, but Maranatha was able to close it out.

The Minutemen carried the momentum over to the third game.

“We gave them the control with the way that we played,” Real said.

The Indians played better in the fourth, forcing the deciding fifth game.