Rockets claim BN-East crown

The last time Burlington Central won a Big Northern Conference championship in 1986, no player on the 2007 team was even born.

The last time the Rockets and Hampshire met up, the teams poured out a 3-game marathon.

Neither factor seemed to matter much as Central took the court Wednesday for Senior Night in what looked to be another long night in Big Northern Conference volleyball. The Rockets (26-3, 9-0) didn't waste much time in erasing both memories from their record, defeating Hampshire 25-21, 25-20 to claim their first league title in 21 years.

"We knew what was at strake and came out fired up," said Central senior Kim Ingraham, who finished with 8 kills and 4 blocks. "We just pulled it together. Once we got on a serving run, we put it together and played strong defense."

Trailing 11-9 in Game 1, the Rockets bounced back when Stephanie Holthus (8 kills, 7 digs) and a Hampshire (25-2, 7-2) hitting error tied things at 11.

Then Ingraham (8 kills, 4 blocks) took over. The senior slammed 4 of the Rockets' next 5 points putting Central up 16-13. Holthus took control of the serve with the game tied at 13 and led the Rockets to 5 straight points an 18-13 lead.

The Rockets never looked back.

"We were playing kind of scared," said Hampshire outside hitter Jena Karkos, who finished with 9 kills. "As soon as we hit a certain point, we just let them have it. It's hard to bring it up when you get down 3 or 4 points in a row."

Teresa Krog did the damage for BC in Game 2. Krog finished with 5 of her 9 kills in the second game, including stopping a late run by the Whip-Purs, which pulled them to 22-19.

"Kim came in with some blocking kills," Central coach Marv Leavitt said. "She played so smart. When we needed a big kill in that second game, Teresa was there."

Hampshire pulled within 22-19 behind sophomore Amy Wehrs (11 kills, 9 digs), but could never close it out. Hampshire never led by more than 2 points in the match, which came when the Whips were up 11-9 in Game 1.

"I didn't think we had the momentum," Hampshire coach Karen Whitehouse said. There we times when we were winning and we didn't have the momentum."

Molly Turk (28 assists) and Rachael Latham (6 digs) both contributed for the Rockets, while Kara Wehrs (20 assists) paced the Whips.

Senior Amber Ladwig led the Whips with 4 blocks, but could not keep up with the heavy hitters the Rockets' offense possessed.

"Our blocking wasn't there," Whitehouse said. "You have to put up a block against a team like Burlington Central, who runs a very fast offense."