Burroughs still the top dog in boys’ volleyball
BURBANK — Sorry for the pun Burbank High, but the big dog in local boys’ volleyball is still Burroughs.
The Bulldogs found that out first-hand Thursday when the cross-town rivals met for the first of two matches this season.
Upstart Burbank came into the contest undefeated and sitting atop the Pacific League standings after sweeping its first two league opponents. However, the Indians quickly brought the Bulldogs back down to earth.
Burroughs built big leads and took advantage of Burbank mistakes to sweep the host Bulldogs, 25-16, 25-14, 25-16.
The win puts the Indians (8-2, 2-0 in league) — ranked No. 5 in CIF Southern Section Division II — back in front of the Bulldogs (2-4, 2-1) in the Pacific League standings.
“We definitely looked at their scores coming in and we knew what kind of team that they were,” Burroughs senior outside hitter Daniel Jacobs said. “We knew that they were the No. 1 team in our league coming in, so that just gave us that much more motivation.”
Jacobs, last season’s co-league player of the year who helped the Indians capture a share of the league championship in 2012, finished with a match-high eight kills despite sitting out the entire third game. Teammate Danny Casillas contributed 10 digs.
With two impressive three-game sweeps against Crescenta Valley and Arcadia to start the league campaign, the Bulldogs came into Thursday’s contest with a wealth of experience. In only their second season of varsity competition after reviving the program, the Bulldogs have been making strides this season.
However, it was evident early on that the Indians were just on another level.
“What they showed today is that they are still that much better than us,” Burbank Coach Patrick McMenamin said. “But we just didn’t show up today.
“We were just trying to treat this like just another league match and not focus too much on the rivalry. But we just had too many errors and that hurt us.”
Despite those errors, it was Burroughs mistakes early in the first game that allowed the Bulldogs to take a 5-4 lead following an Indians hitting error. However, the advantage was short-lived. Burroughs began to play better and, although it committed six service errors and five hitting errors in the first frame, the Indians were able to coast to a win.
Unfortunately for Burbank, that would be its only lead of the contest.
The second game featured Burroughs in prime form. The Indians jumped out to a 21-6 lead and, despite some late mistakes, took the second game easily.
It was the same scenario in the third game, as the Indians built a big lead and suffered some lapses down the stretch.
“You could see when we got to 20 in all three of the games, we kind of took our foot off the gas for a bit,” Burroughs Coach Joel Brinton said. “We have to do a better job at not letting up when we have a lead.”