"They already knew about it, so there was nothing more I could tell them," Bernhardt said. "It was all them. They got motivated all by themselves."
Although they had the winning streak in the back of their minds, some of the Burroughs players admitted they were more motivated by the prospect of defeating their longtime nemesis.
In addition, with five or six players new to varsity this season, many of the Indians weren't even on last year's squad that won two from the Bulldogs.
"This is a very different team from last year," Burroughs No. 1 singles player Melanie Irinco said. "We have a lot of girls who were on [junior varsity] last season.
"So, we really didn't want to think that much about what we were able to do last season. We just wanted to stay focused on this one."
While the Indians appeared revved up for the contest, the Bulldogs (1-3, 0-2) seemed to go flat after the first of three rounds.
Burbank didn't let things get too out of hand in the first round, as Burroughs took a 4-2 advantage. However, when the Bulldogs won just one set in the second round — giving the Indians a commanding 9-3 lead — things appeared bleak for the visitors.
"We have just one player on our team who is a tournament player," Paul McNiff said. "I think we have five girls who are [Associated Student Body] members and others who are presidents of clubs and things like that.
"So, many of them just don't have a lot of time to devote to tennis, because they have so many other things going on."
