Holthus takes over, Burlington gets share of title

It's no secret that Burlington Central senior Stephanie Holthus has the ability to take over a match at any given time.

The most recent of those times came Tuesday in the rockin' Rockets gym on Volley for the Cure night.

With a nearly packed house on hand, screaming wildly on every point, Holthus took matters into her own hands when she stepped to the service line with her team down 18-17 to rival Hampshire in Game 1. Holthus proceeded to jump serve 7 straight points, including 3 aces, to give BC a 24-18 lead. A tip kill by Brenda Thasavong later, and the Rockets had won Game 1 by a 25-19 count. They carried that momentum to a 25-18 win in Game 2, securing a share of the Big Northern East championship with Hampshire. The conference title is the third straight for Burlington Central, which could face the Whip-Purs for a third time, this time with the BC regional championship on the line, on Halloween night.

"(BC coach) Marv (Leavitt) tells us to think 3-4 points at a time when we serve," said Holthus. "I got on a run and we got the 'mo' going, as Marv would say, and it carried over to the second game."

Said Leavitt: "Holthus got on that run and that turned it around. She took over. She's one of the best players in the state and she came up big tonight."

The match started out much like the first time two of the best teams in Class 3A met, with Hampshire (24-3, 9-1) the aggressor. The Whips held leads in Game 1 of 8-3, 15-9 and 17-12 before the Rockets (25-8, 9-1) started climbing back into the match. With sophomore Katelyn O'Reilly, who was celebrating her 16th birthday, at the line, two Hampshire errors and 2 kills from Holthus made it a 17-16 game. A kill from senior Jennifer Hubbe made it 18-16 and gave Hampshire the serve but another Hampshire error made it 18-17 and put the volleyball in Holthus' hands. The comeback was on.

"We had to control our excitement," said the Northwestern-bound Holthus. "There was a lot going on tonight. It was Volley for the Cure and it was Senior Night. (Senior) Taylor (Scully) and I just wanted to come out with a bang tonight."

In Game 2 the Rockets continued to control serve and serve receive. They jumped out to a 6-2 lead and although Hampshire came back to take a 9-8 lead and tie the game at 13 and 15, the Rockets clearly had the Whips on their heels. O'Reilly served an ace and Hampshire made two more errors as BC built a 19-15 lead it never looked back from. The Rockets won the match and snapped Hampshire's 22-match win streak on a match ace by junior Audrey Djukic.

"Our practice this week was working on stopping their offense," said Scully, who will play at Niagara University next year. "We worked so hard. We wanted to be three-time conference champs. We had the homecourt advantage tonight and that was great for us. We had a little more to play for this time."

Holthus had 8 kills, 5 aces and 5 digs to lead the Rockets while Scully added 4 kills and 8 digs. Djukic had 3 kills, O'Relly contributed 18 assists and Sam Bohne had 9 digs.

"We won the serve and serve receive battle tonight," Leavitt said. "We were a little tense at the beginning but we kept fighting back."

Senior Amy Wehrs led Hampshire with 5 kills and 6 digs, but the Whip-Purs had just 19 digs as a team and made 9 service errors.

"They put the pressure on us this time and we played like we were on the defense," said Hampshire coach Karen Whitehouse. "We fell apart mentally. We practiced the jump serve all week and they see Amy's jump serve in practice all the time.

"The girls are upset tonight. They wanted to win the conference outright. Hopefully they will use this as motivation."