BC deals La-Salle Peru 1st loss -on to Sweet 16

STERLING - LaSalle-Peru came into Tuesday's Class 3A girls volleyball sectional here with an undefeated record.

And Burlington Central said big deal.

The Rockets, down 10-6 early in Game 3 after losing Game 2, stormed back and took control of the game, brushing aside the fact the Cavaliers were undefeated and had gone to the Elite Eight last year. BC got its confidence back with a 5-point run to take an 11-10 lead and used that energy to go on to a 25-22, 18-25, 25-23 win in an exhilarating 89-minute match in front of a sizable crowd on both sides.

"I'm just so proud of all the girls," said BC senior standout Molly Turk. "The younger girls really stepped up and played their roles tonight. Our crowd was great ... all the fans and all the parents.

"We had people helping us out with scouting reports and there was no doubt in our minds we were going to win tonight."

The Rockets (32-6) will take on Freeport (30-4) Thursday at 7 p.m. for the right to advance to Saturday's Freeport supersectional. The Sweet Sixteen appearance is the first for BC in program history.

"It was a well-fought tough game and at the end our kids came through," said BC coach Marv Leavitt. "It was a big turn when we came back from (10-6). Then it was back and forth and we had the run at the end."

The Rockets survived because they had a better 1-2 punch than LaSalle-Peru (36-1). While the Cavaliers' Jazzymne Robbins was dominant at the net with 14 kills, the Cavaliers couldn't match BC's Turk-to-Stephanie Holthus connection, nor could they control the hitting of BC junior Taylor Scully.

Holthus slammed home 18 kills on the night and, more importantly, was 36-of-36 on serve receive. The Northern-Iowa bound Turk had 22 assists and 12 kills and Scully added 7 important kills.

"We figured that we had played some really tough matches and all in all their record didn't mean anything," said Holthus, a Northwestern recruit. "This is the state tournament."

In Game 1 neither team led by more than 3 points. BC led 24-22 when Turk ended the game with an incredible read, tipping the ball to an open spot in the left middle of L-P's defense. In Game 2, L-P pulled away from a 17-15 lead with an 8-3 run at the end. But once the Rockets regained the momentum midway through Game 3, they seized the opportunity to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.

"We came out with nothing to lose tonight," said Turk. "We felt we played more competition and we were determined to give them their first loss."

And that the Rockets did.