GIRLS' VOLLEYBALL: V.C. OUTLASTS BURROUGHS.

Byline: ERIK BOAL

Special to the Daily News

SUN VALLEY -- It was only appropriate Rachel Taylor's left-handed, off-balanced shot barely landed on the other side of the net on match point.

Village Christian of Sun Valley's ability to make of the best of broken plays led to heartbreaking results all night long for the Burroughs of Burbank girls' volleyball team.

Whether it was Taylor finessing the ball from the left side, Megan Wiechmann dumping a set in the middle of the Indians' defense or Myleene Nueve managing to direct hard-driven shots back for an occasional point, it was often the softest shots that did the most damage Monday for the host Crusaders.

With Taylor and Jenna Kapuscinski matching the production of Karissa Lagmay and Tatiana Sao at the net, the little things wound up making the biggest difference for Village Christian in a 25-21, 20-25, 19-25, 25-19, 15-9 nonleague victory.

"It's really big anytime we can get a point when we're out of system," said Wiechmann, who halted a Burroughs rally in the fifth game with a one-arm swing as she was running into the bleachers that resulted in the ball landing in the middle of the court for an 11-7 lead. "That's usually how we get our runs started because those are the points we really need."

After struggling in a couple of serve-receive rotations in the second and third games, Village Christian (8-1) cut down on its mistakes in the last two, with Wiechmann (six kills, 21 digs and 46 assists) orchestrating a balanced attack that began to frustrate Burroughs (4-2).

Taylor, who had a career-high 35 kills in Wednesday's five-game victory at Canyon of Canyon Country, had five of her match-high 24kills in the deciding game and Kapuscinski added three kills in the fifth for her second straight 19-kill performance.

"We're a really happy team, so if we get serious, it doesn't work," said Taylor, who added 14 digs. "We know they're a really good team because we played them in summer. They're great, so it makes it a little bit sweeter to beat them when it counts."

Although untimely service errors plagued Burroughs in the opening game, the Indians rode the play of Lagmay (20 kills and 18 digs) to quickly rebound, putting Village Christian on its heels the next two games and in the early part of the fourth, leading 12-10.

But the Crusaders made the necessary defensive adjustments to go on a 10-2 run to seize momentum en route to extending the match.

"When we started serving in the court it was a different ballgame," said Burroughs coach Edwin Real, who received a match-high 26 assists from Traci Hamanaka. "But Village Christian deserves a lot of credit. They didn't give up. We hit some hard shots and they just coming back at us."

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