Bears continue their blazing start to the season  

The John Burroughs Bears continued to get off to a fast start to the season and swept the Crescenta Valley Falcons Thursday following an intense five-set win over Thousand Oaks on Tuesday Night (25-22, 25-27, 25-27, 25-11, 15-11). The Crescenta Valley Falcons came into the contest fresh off a four-set win over the Burbank Bulldogs, also on Tuesday. 

Both teams began the opening set neck and neck. Burroughs once trailed 8-5 in to start the first set but, Skyy Alston and Benji Ly got the Bears back into the contest by tying the game at eight. Ly recorded a block and a kill to make it an even contest. Both teams put on a clinic in the opening set as Noah Duffield, Ly, and Caiden Shrode helped Burroughs seal the epic first set with back-to-back-to-back kills to give Burroughs a 27-25 win over CV in set one. 

Following an epic first set, the Bears went on a 6-2 scoring run to start set two. Duffield and Ryder Tafoya chipped in with the scoring run for Burroughs. The Bears held on to their lead throughout the second set, never letting their advantage shrink to less than 2 points. That momentum carried Burroughs in a tight, but one-sided set two over Crescenta Valley. Benji Ly put the finishing touch when he scored a set-point kill for a 25-20 victory to give Burroughs a comfortable 2-0 series lead heading into the third set. 

Both the Bears and Falcons had questions heading into the third set with Burroughs determined to complete the sweep and Crescenta Valley had other ideas, looking to extend the night to a fourth set. Duffield, Nathan Kameya, and Alston contributed to the Bears’ 4-1 scoring run to begin set three. Burroughs continued to have control of the contest over CV and found a way to complete the sweep over the Falcons with a 25-18 win in the third set. 

“I think we weren’t as sharp as we needed to be mentally and physically. It led to a lot of sloppiness in our play,” said Joel Brinton. Brinton also stated that the team didn’t have a lot of errors heading into the game against CV. 

“There was a lot of stuff that we did well throughout the game, the energy was great and overall we had a lot of positives coming out of this game,” said John Nelson. Nelson also said that there are a few things that the Falcons need to clean up and also admits that this loss does not define who the Crescenta Valley Falcons are. 

Burroughs improves to 11-2 overall and 3-0 in Pacific League play. Crescenta Valley drops to 9-8 overall and 1-1 in Pacific League play. Both teams will return to action next week as CV will host Pasadena on Wednesday, March 19th at 5:15 p.m. Burroughs will head down to San Diego for the La Jolla Tournament for two days on Friday, March 21st, and Saturday, March 22nd.