A playoff win, and a loss
BURROUGHS HIGH — Members of the Burroughs High boys’ tennis team thought they were going to be in worse shape for the postseason.
Heading into the CIF Southern Section Division II playoffs, the Indians were already stinging after losing two starters to academic ineligibility.
Burroughs thought it was going to lose two more players who were scheduled to take Academic Placement tests.
Luckily for Burroughs, the AP testing days were not on days it had matches.
With only the two athletes missing, the Indians had an easy time defeating Bonita, 16-2, in a first-round match Wednesday at Burroughs.
Unfortunately for Burroughs, they weren’t able to get past the first round, falling Friday to host Diamond Bar, 14-4, in a second-round match.
“The good thing is that the AP testing was on Thursday, and we had games Wednesday and Friday,” Burroughs Coach Roy Bernhardt said. “That way the two guys taking the tests could be with us for both of our games.”
The loss ends the season for Burroughs (16-3), which shared the Pacific League championship with Arcadia.
With the team’s No. 1 singles player sidelined because of grades, Bryan Hoang was inserted into the lineup. Playing at No. 3 singles against Bonita (11-5 and second place from the Miramonte League), Hoang more than held his own, winning two of three sets, 6-0, 6-0, 1-6.
“Bryan was going to be our sacrifice out there,” Bernhardt said. “But he did really well, and to win two is just great.”
Burroughs’ other two singles players made easy work of their Bearcats opponents, as No. 1 Robert Henry and Garrett Auproux both rolled to 6-0 results.
Henry is the Pacific League champion and Auproux was the runner-up.
“We could tell by watching [Bonita] warm up that they weren’t as competitive as we thought they were going to be,” Bernhardt said.
The Indians’ two top doubles teams also earned sweeps. At No. 1, Michael Whelan and Winston Chang went, 7-5, 6-2, 6-1, and No. 2 Phillip Lam and Kevin Hoang went, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3.
Even when Burroughs inserted a substitute in at No. 3 singles, Eric Lee was able to team up with Oscar Lam to take two sets, 6-1, 6-3.
The Indians took a 4-2 lead after the first of three rounds. Bonita didn’t win a set in the final two rounds.
Against Diamond Bar (19-1) — the Sierra League champion — the Indians were able to win just one set in doubles and three in singles.
Auproux led the way, taking two doubles sets and losing the third in a tie breaker.