O’Reilly injured; BC downs St. Edward
The Burlington Central girls volleyball team earned its first victory Wednesday evening, but the Rockets might have lost a lot more.
Senior setter Kaitlyn O’Reilly injured her left knee during the first warm-up session and did not play in Central’s 25-21, 25-17 victory over St. Edward in Elgin. “She felt something pop so we don’t know,” Rockets coach Marv Leavitt said. “She was hoping to be able to play through it, but she couldn’t.”
O’Reilly recently committed to Southern Illinois-Edwardsville and was a member of the Daily Herald All-Area team last season. O’Reilly sat next to the coaches on the bench and acted as another coach during the match.
Junior Courtney Cox, who was the sophomore team setter last season and does not play club volleyball, replaced O’Reilly and directed the Rockets’ offense smoothly. She finished with 15 assists.
“She did awesome,” Central senior Sydney Sand said of Cox. “We pulled together with Kaitlyn out.”
“Courtney came through for us tonight,” Leavitt said. “Courtney was expecting to ride the bench this year and learn from Kaitlyn. Things might change now.”
St. Edward (0-1) led by a point three times early in the opening game, but fell behind 4-3 and never let again in the match.
“First-game jitters. A lot of these kids have never played anywhere this loud,” Green Wave coach Jaime Dovichi said. “Not that this gym isn’t loud enough, then you got (Central) kids that are loud too.”
Central (1-1) distributed the ball around in the opening game, getting 6 kills from Sand and 3 from Lexie Bouza. The Rockets led by as many as 8 in the first game and earned the victory on a Green Wave service error.
The Rockets continued to roll in the second game. Sand’s 10th and final kill gave Central a 20-11 lead as the Rockets cruised the rest of the way.
Samantha Bohne led Central with 12 digs. Sand and Allie O’Reilly each added 7 digs. Hayley Brake had 5 blocks.
Sarah Norman had 6 kills and 5 digs for St. Edward. Katie Ayello had 10 assists in her first match as the Green Wave setter.