St Margaret's advances to the quarterfinal round in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 Playoffs with a 3-0 win over Burroughs

The St. Margaret’s Tartans defeated the John Burroughs Bears in 3 sets in the 2nd round of the CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs to move on to the CIF Southern Section Division 3 Quarterfinal round to put an end to the John Burroughs Bears season. Heading into the 2nd round contest, Burroughs is coming off a 5-set victory over South Pasadena (22-25, 28-26, 25-22, 17-25, 15-10) on Thursday, April 25th, while St Margaret’s was coming off a 3-set win over Millikan on Wednesday, April 24th.

Benji Ly and Henry Carlin got the scoring going for the Bears with back-to-back kills in the opening set while Reed Wainwright recorded the first kill for the Tartans. Charlie Gerard gave Burroughs a 3-1 lead with a kill. Both teams traded points early and Reed Wainwright tied the game with a kill and Burroughs committed a tapping violation to tie the score at 4. Dylan Otto and Caden Isola both recorded back-to-back kills to tie the score at 6 until the Bears committed a side-out error for St Margaret’s to be in front 7-6. Burroughs would not tie the set again. They did stay within striking distance of the Tartans before a late run put them away. Wainwright recorded the set-ending kills to give St Margaret’s a 1st round win by the final of 25-17.

Benji Ly started the 2nd set with 2 straight kills and got the Bears an early 1-0 lead to start set 2. Following a net error, Ly gave the Bears a 2-1 lead. Miles Eaton recorded back-to-back blocks to put the Tartans in front by 2 points. St. Margarets took that early lead and didn’t look back, convincingly taking the set. Reed Wainwright recorded the set-ending kill to give St Margaret’s a 25-16 win.

The Bears needed answers in set 3 to save their season and force a 4th set following set 2 but both teams were trading points to start the 3rd set with Charlie Gerard and Beckeett Harvey both recording kills in a back-and-forth start to the set. Ly got a kill to put the Bears within one and the Bears tied the game on a side-out error by St Margaret’s. This set was tight throughout, and while Burroughs tried to rally in the later stages of the 3rd set, the Tartans found a way to put the game on ice. Wainwright recorded a block to give St Margaret’s a 2-point lead at 22-20. Miles Eaton ultimately recorded the game-winning kill for a 25-21 set win to eliminate the Burroughs Bears from the playoffs.

“The boys never stopped battling. To be fair, St Margaret’s never let us off the hook and had trouble bringing their max effort in the game,” said Bears coach Joel Brinton. Brinton stated that Gerard and Ly both played fantastic in the loss to St Margaret’s.

Burroughs finishes the 2024 season with a 25-9 overall record and an 8-2 record in Pacific League Play. St Margaret’s will play Wiseburn DaVinci in the CIF Southern Section Division 3 Quarterfinal Round on Wednesday, May 1st with the first serve scheduled for 6 p.m.