Singles sweep powers Burroughs
BURROUGHS HIGH — The Burroughs High boys’ tennis team has been paced by its trio of talented singles players all season.
Things have been exactly the opposite cross town at Burbank, as the Bulldogs have won their share of matches on the strength of their doubles corps.
It was the Indians singles that took center stage Wednesday in a Pacific League regular-season finale between the two rivals. Burroughs swept all nine singles sets — surrendering just one game in the process — to claim a 12-6 victory at home.
“Our singles have really come through for us for the whole season,” Burroughs Coach Roy Bernhardt said.”And when we can get a few in doubles, that really helps us a lot.”
Burbank Coach Loi Phan said his team just doesn’t have the singles talent this season.
“For a few years we did have some good singles players and we were always a little lacking in doubles,” he said. “But this year it’s exactly the opposite. We have some pretty good doubles players, but we just don’t have the singles. I wish just for one season we would be strong in both.”
The win allowed Burroughs (9-3 in league) to finish second in league behind champion Arcadia. The Indians and Apaches shared the title a year ago.
Despite the loss, Burbank (7-6, 6-6 in league) was able to earn a spot in the CIF Southern Section playoffs. A 14-4 win by Glendale against Hoover Thursday gave the Bulldogs fourth place in league and an automatic postseason bid.
The Bulldogs had no answer for the powerful Indians singles attack. While Calvin Fox and Michael Whelan coasted to 6-0 scores in their three sets, Garrett Auproux gave up just one to Taja Bellow, 6-1, while disposing of his other two opponents by 6-0 scores.
Auproux, a sophomore, has dropped just one set all season. His only defeat came against Arcadia’s Travis Tu in a set Auproux had to retire from because of a sore shoulder.
“He has really played well for us through the season,” Bernhardt said of Auproux, who finished as the league runner-up in singles last season.
Auproux will get a chance to play for a league title when the preliminaries kick off at 1 p.m. Monday at Pasadena High. The finals will take place Wednesday at 1 p.m. at the same venue.
Along with their singles domination, the Indians also received two set wins from their No. 2 doubles team, Oscar Lam and Wen Yao Lin, which went, 6-4, 6-2, 2-6.
The No. 1 Burroughs team of Phillip Lam and Kevin Hoang won one, 6-2, 3-6, 3-6.
Burbank received a sweep from its doubles duo of Keon Park and Clayton Pauff, which posted 6-3, 6-2, 6-1 wins.
Park and Pauff, both sophomores, advanced to the league semifinals last season, upsetting a tough Apaches pair in the process. Phan said he thinks his duo could make some noise in this season’s tournament.
“They’ve been there, so they know what to expect,” Phan said. “I think they have a good shot at doing very well in the tournament.”
The Bulldogs’ pair of James Hong and Arthur Kubko won two, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2, and brothers Kevin and Kenneth Banaras took one, 2-6, 4-6, -3.