Burroughs volleyball can’t bring down first-place Arcadia

BURBANK — Beginning the second go-round of Pacific League play, the Burroughs High girls’ volleyball team hoped to remain in the Pacific League championship picture.

The defending champions looked to stay in the hunt, as well as move into a first-place tie with Arcadia, when they took on the Apaches Tuesday afternoon.

Although Burroughs played well in the first two games, winning the second, it was simply unable to keep pace with Arcadia, which earned a 28-26, 21-25, 25-15, 25-18 victory on the Indians’ home court.

The win kept the Apaches (14-1, 8-0 in league), ranked No. 6 in CIF Southern Section Division VI, firmly entrenched in first place in league. The Indians (13-4, 6-2) fell into a second-place tie with Crescenta Valley (9-8, 6-2).

“If we would have won this, we move into first place in league with [Arcadia],” said Burroughs Coach Edwin Real, whose squad also fell in four games to Arcadia in the teams’ first meeting Sept. 8. “But now we have to think about fighting for the second-place spot.”

After the teams played fairly evenly in the first two games, the Apaches seemed to flip the switch in the third and fourth stanzas, and the Indians were unable to keep pace.

“Granted, Arcadia is a very good team and they have some good players,” said Burroughs junior Marin Grote, who led all players with 20 kills. “But we definitely could have played better. We seemed to lose focus at some points and we got down at some points and we couldn’t come back.

“They really make things difficult for us and we had to battle for every point that we got. But we gave them a lot of free points.”

Burroughs began the match on a positive note, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first game. The Indians continued to play well, enjoying a five-point lead at 14-9. They still had a four-point cushion, 17-13, until Arcadia embarked on a 5-0 run to jump in front, 18-17.

But Burroughs didn’t let the game get away from it and, when junior Ricki Patenaude and senior Juliana Van Loo combined on a block, the Indians were looking at game-point, 25-24. But the Apaches stayed alive and surged to a 27-26 lead on a kill from junior Abby Martin. Arcadia won the game on a block by junior Cammie Dopke.

Burroughs took control in the second game and went ahead for good at 13-12. The Indians increased their advantage to seven, 16-12, after a 7-0 run, fueled by the serving of freshman Ali Perez, who had two aces during the run.

“Arcadia is capable of making mistakes and they showed that in the second game,” said Real of the Apaches, who committed 11 unforced errors in the second set.

“But we made our share of mistakes in the other games. You just can’t make mistakes against a good team like that.”

In the third game, Arcadia took an early lead, 13-5, and Burroughs couldn’t chip away at the advantage.

The Apaches led from start to finish in the fourth game, quickly building a seven-point cushion at 13-6. The Indians cut the lead to three, 17-14, but that would be the closest they would get the rest of the way.

Senior Caleigh Paster added seven kills and junior Juliana Cottrell added six for Burroughs.