Burlington Central storms back to take crown
Kaneland's girls volleyball team may have dominated Burlington Central in Game 1 Thursday night more than any team has in a single set all season.
But that's why volleyball matches are played best-of-three.
The Rockets stormed back from a disastrous opening set to win the next two and beat the Knights 14-25, 25-25-20, 25-20 in the championship match of the Class 3A Hampshire regional.
Central (31-6), which advanced to a sectional final last year, will take on Dixon (15-18) at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Rochelle sectional.
"I'm speechless," exclaimed Rockets' senior Aly DeTamble, whose spike glanced off two Kaneland players out of bounds for match point. "This is so unbelievable. I just love my team. All the hard work paid off."
Things looked bleak for Central in Game 1. Kaneland blocked everything the Rockets tried to hit, and the Knights (24-9-1) attacked the net aggressively. They turned a 7-6 deficit into a 12-7 lead with strong blocking and never looked back.
The rest of the night was a different story. The second-seeded Rockets started finding holes in Kaneland's defense, they amped up their serving game, and Kaneland had no answer.
"We knew we just had to settle down and play volleyball," said Central coach Marv Leavitt. "They came out and hit us hard. Kaneland played fantastic that first game. But we knew if we could weather that storm we could stay in it. Give Kaneland credit, they came out on fire tonight. But give credit to our girls. They really weathered the storm and came back strong."
The Rockets turned a 17-16 deficit in Game 2 into a 20-17 lead and with that took the momentum away from the Knights. Two Lauren Wiltsie kills, a Kaneland net violation and an Alexis Van Hiel block turned the set and the match in BC's favor. The Rockets evened the match on a DeTamble kill.
"Once the first game ended I just said this is what a third game is for," said Wiltsie, who returned from a bruised foot that kept her out of Tuesday's semifinal win over Genoa-Kingston. "We just had to play our game. It's a really cool thrill and I'm really proud of everyone. After the first game we just settled in and started understanding their hits."
Game 3 went back-and-forth early and the Rockets again trailed 17-16 when they made their move. A Kaneland net violation tied the game and Central eventually grabbed a 21-18 lead on a block by senior Emily Bozich. Kaneland closed to 21-19 on a kill from senior Anna Senese but a DeTamble tip made it 22-19 and with senior Mackenzie Whitmer serving, the Rockets used a powerful DeTamble kill and a four-hit violation on Kaneland to make it 24-19. Holly Fedderly pushed a kill to an open spot in the back of the court to help the Knights stave off match point but DeTamble's spike was blocked out of bounds and the Rockets had the regional title.
"We had a lot of unforced errors in the first game and in the huddle we knew we had to pick up our ball control," said DeTamble. "Their block was a big struggle but we adjusted to it."
The Rockets also did a stellar job on serve receive all night, not getting aced once. Wiltsie led the offense with 10 kills. Bozich and DeTamble (15 digs, 25-for-25 serve receive) added 5 kills each, Van Hiel had 8 blocks and Maddy Barry 8 blocks. Barry had 15 assists and Whitmer 13.
"They were blocking us big-time in the first game so we just had to find a way to score points and it didn't matter how," said Leavitt. "It was really a feeling of comfort having Wiltsie back out there tonight. She's such a competitor."
Senior Ball State recruit Ellie Dunn led the Knights with 13 kills and 19 digs, while senior Riley Hannula added 8 kills and Senese had 6 kills and 8 digs.
"We came out really strong but the second game our serve receive broke down a little and you can never let down in the playoffs," said Kaneland coach Cynthia Violett. "We weren't blocking as much after the first game and they started tipping and that threw us off a little. We weren't getting the good serve receive to get it to the middle.
"But this doesn't take away from the great season we had."