Burlington Central in Elite 8 for 1st time
STERLING - There's no question the girls volleyball teams from Burlington Central and Freeport were evenly matched here Thursday night in the championship of the Class 3A Sterling sectional.
But it came down to heart and desire and in those departments, Burlington Central won hands down.
For the second time in three days, the Rockets bounced back from a Game 2 loss, and this time in dominating fashion, as they turned away the Pretzels 25-22, 23-25, 25-18 in front of a crowd of more than 600 to win the program's first sectional title, and to join softball and football as the only team sports to advance to the Elite Eight in school history.
It's also the first trip to the Elite Eight from longtime coach Marv Leavitt, who reached the Sweet 16 with St. Charles and St. Edward, but never the Elite Eight.
The Rockets (32-6) will travel to Freeport Saturday to take on Metamora (35-2) in the supersectional with a trip to the Final Four at Redbird Arena next weekend on the line. Metamora dominated Bloomington 25-16, 25-16 in the Washington sectional final Thursday.
With senior setter Molly Turk, the Daily Herald's All-Area captain, playing through increasing pain from back spasms, BC turned to a powerful hitting game to send the Pretzels home without a trip to their own supersectional. Junior standout Stephanie Holthus had 21 kills on the night, including 7 in Game 3, and junior Taylor Scully, who had 7 kills for the match, was never better than in Game 3 when she scored 2 of the Rockets' final 3 points on power slams. The match-winner ended up in the Freeport student section after deflecting off Pretzels' libero Caitlin Greene.
"At first it was nerve-racking but I just focused and hit it over," said Scully, who won two Class 2A state titles and finished second once while attending Evangelical Christian High School in Fort Myers, Fla., before transferring to Burlington this year.
"I've been to state before and it's amazing and when we get there we'll be playing our hearts out, added Scully, whose father, Mike, is a former NFL center with the Washington Redskins and the Kansas City Chiefs."
No one showed more heart for BC Thursday than Turk, who immediately started icing her sore back after the match. She had just 6 kills but dished out 26 assists and never came off the floor.
"It's been killing me for the last week," said Turk, a Northern Iowa recruit. "But my teammates are so supportive. It's just mind over matter I guess. This was our goal and we accomplished it. Now we want more. I'm on Cloud 9 right now and I couldn't be happier."
Said Leavitt: "Molly has so much heart. She's just a player with so much determination. Everyone loves her. She's a leader and a winner."
The Rockets took control of Game 1 when they turned an 8-6 lead into a 12-8 advantage and then held off every Freeport challenge, winning on a slam by the Northwestern-bound Holthus, who was also 22-of-22 on serve receive to make her 58-of-58 for the sectional.
Neither team led by more than 4 points in Game 2 and Freeport (30-5) prevailed when Courtney Shiffer (7 kills) slammed home the game-winning point.
But the Rockets, who had the support of more than 125 students who rode 3 fan busses to the match, took control of Game 3 early, never trailing after jumping to a 3-0 lead. They held a 22-13 advantage when Freeport made a mini-run to close to 22-17. But a Scully kill made it 23-17 and after Freeport's Kelsey Hoefer notched a kill to make it 23-18, a Pretzel hitting error set up match point. Scully's slam then sent the Rockets to the Elite Eight.
"The last six matches we've played have all been like this," said Leavitt. "I think we're immune to it now. We know we're going to play great teams from here on out. These guys are winners and this is a lot of fun. We don't have a lot of big players but we have a lot of heart and desire."
So much, that the season will continue for at least one more match.