Nitros suffer league setback

BURBANK — The last time the Glendale and Burroughs high boys’ tennis teams stood toe-to-toe on the same courts, it was for the all the marbles.

The two teams finished in a tie for third place at the end of last season and needed a play-in match, which Burroughs eventually prevailed in, to determine who would earn the Pacific League’s final berth into the CIF playoffs.

While Tuesday’s early season league battle didn’t have quite the same stakes, the victor would take an important step forward in the race for the league championship.

In the end, Glendale was not able to turn its fortunes, as Burroughs’ recipe of dominant singles play and competitive doubles led to a convincing 14-4 victory at Burroughs.

“I thought they just totally manhandled us today,” Glendale Coach Bob Davidson said. “Got to give them credit. They played terrific tennis.

“On the other hand, I’m extremely disappointed with our team. I felt like we were playing like we were afraid today. We were very timid.”

The Nitros (2-1, 1-1 in league) struggled in singles, not winning a set, but were able to notch four victories in doubles.

Despite some of the doubles success, Davidson was hoping for more out of his pairs.

“I was extremely disappointed with our doubles today,” said Davidson, whose Nitros have been regulars in the playoffs since he took over the program in 1998. “For us to compete with them, we’ve got to play a whole lot better than that in doubles”

Glendale’s No. 1 doubles team of juniors Nick Daka and Mike Astorian, the league runners-up last year, picked up two 6-1 victories.

Daka and Astorian were denied a third victory when Burroughs’ No. 3 team of Andre Yanez and Jay Chung pulled a 7-5 upset.

The Nitros’ No. 2 pair of junior Bushra Abdelmalak and senior Gerald Young were able to pull out a 6-4 victory over Burroughs’ Eugene Tsyganovskiy and Daniel Park.

Elliot Kim and Andrew Choi claimed the Nitros’ final victory with a 6-1 win.

Glendale’s No. 2 singles player Suren Aydmyan nearly stole a singles win over Burroughs freshman Robert Henry, but Henry staved off Aydmyan’s charge to win 7-6 (7-5).

“Our singles are tough,” Burroughs Coach Roy Bernhardt said.

Burroughs (3-0, 2-0) got a big boost from No. 1 singles player Trevor Campbell, the reigning All-Area Singles Player of the Year.

Campbell, a sophomore, missed his team’s match versus Hoover last week due to an illness, but came out swinging on Tuesday. He swept his three sets and dropped just four games on the day.

Davidson is hoping Glendale’s struggles on Tuesday will pass and his team can rebound to get back on track.

“It’s very obvious we’ve got a long way to go at this point,” he said. “Hopefully, we’ll use this as a wake-up call and get out and work harder to try and improve. … We are capable of being a whole lot better than we were today.

“We are all disappointed, so we’ve got to go out and do something about it.”

 DYLAN KRUSE covers sports. He can be reached at (818) 637-3252 or dylan.kruse@latimes.com.