Burlington Central wins 8th straight

As the season has gone on the Burlington Central girls volleyball team has gotten more comfortable with its new setter.

And as the Rockets have gotten more at ease with Allie O’Reilly, who had to replace her injured sister Kaitlyn, better results have come.

Central won its eighth straight match Thursday evening with a 25-11, 26-24 Big Northern East victory over Marengo in Burlington.

“We’re settling into conference play and getting better,” Rockets coach Marv Leavitt said. “I think it took us a little while to get used to having a different setter. (Allie) has step up and gotten better.”

The Rockets (12-7, 4-0) cruised in the first game thanks to strong serving that resulted in aces or easy kills on Marengo overpasses. A Lexie Bouza kill on their second game point gave the Rockets the opening-game win.

Marengo (9-10, 3-2) started strong in the second game, opening a 9-4 lead after a Central hitting error. Another hitting error by the Rockets gave the Indians a 17-10 lead.

“We’ve been having this problem where we start off slow,” Marengo coach Marissa Meyers said. “We tried to force our middle more. Both my middles (Melissa Rogutich and Jessica Ville) have been the key to our success this season.”

The Rockets trailed 23-18 before starting to rally. Brenda Thavasong, who led Central with 6 kills, had a kill to get the Rockets within 4. A block by Sydney Sand and a Marengo hitting error made it 23-21, forcing an Indians to call a timeout.

Another overpass by the Indians gave the Rockets another point and a Sand kill tied the game at 23-23. The teams traded points to make it 24-24. Sand and O’Reilly combined for a block gave the Rockets a 25-24 lead, their first of the second game. A Marengo error ended the match.

“We knew we wanted it. One of our goals is to be undefeated in conference,” said Sand, who had 4 kills and 8 digs. “We all pulled together really well.”

O’Reilly finished with 18 assists and 7 aces for the Rockets. Hayley Brake had 5 kills. Thavasong added 3 blocks. Samantha Bohne had 13 digs.

Rogutich led Marengo with 4 kills and 3 blocks.