Central wins first game in state semifinals

NORMAL - Burlington Central High School opened its doors over 50 years ago, a consolidation of Burlington and Plato Center high schools.

Since the Plato Road campus was built in the late 1950s, and then added on to over the years, the school has never played for a state championship in an IHSA sport that is conducted with the bracket and elimination format.

That all changes today.

As dominant as they have been all season, the Rockets rolled to a 25-19, 25-12 win over Chicago Payton here Friday in the Class 3A semifinals.

Burlington Central, which has brought home its share of state hardware in boys and girls track, will play for the school's first state title in a team sport at 5:30 p.m. today when the Rockets face Joliet Catholic, one of the top-ranked teams in the country, at Redbird Arena. Joliet Catholic (38-3), which beat BC in 3 games at the Geneva tournament earlier this season, downed Breese Mater Dei 25-19, 25-23 in Friday's other semifinal.

"I've been a coach a long time and been a part of many great teams but this is really really special," said Rockets coach Marv Leavitt, now in his 19th year coaching and fourth at BC. "People counted us out because we were too short. But you can't count us out. These girls have so much heart."

What the Rockets (35-6) had Friday more than anything else, in addition to a fan base as large and as loud as any in all four classes all day, was determination and superior skill. While Payton (37-2) was also making its first appearance in a state final tournament and showed it, Burlington Central looked like a team that had been here many times before.

"In the locker room I could tell they were loose and relaxed," said Leavitt. "They played like it was just a regular game. I just wanted to win. I didn't care if it was 42-40. It's just an honor to be here and now we're playing for the state championship."

Even though Payton jumped to a 3-1 lead in Game 1, the Rockets weren't fazed, and senior Meghan Zasada made sure of it. Her kill made it a 3-2 game and gave her the serve as well. A dual block from Audrey Djukic and Emily Moxness, an ace, two Payton hitting errors, a Moxness kill and another ace later, the Rockets were ahead 8-3 and the rout was on.

"Meghan got us started with that run in the first game," said Leavitt. "We had a good scouting report. Our goal was to get them off the net and we accomplished that.

Zasada, who served 10 points in the match, felt no pressure serving on a college court in a big arena for the first time.

"I just went back there and did what I normally do - take a deep breath and serve," she said. "I trust my coaches to call the right zone and I just put it in play."

For the remainder of Game 1, the closest the Grizzlies would come would be 4 points. But when they closed to within 23-19, BC senior Molly Turk set junior phenom Stephanie Holthus for a kill to make it 24-19. The Rockets closed out the game, appropriately, with an ace from Zasada.

Holthus, a Northwestern recruit who admitted to being nervous before the match, had 10 of her 17 kills in Game 1 to give her 512 for the season, the 14th-best single-season total in reported IHSA history.

"When you walk out on that court and half your school is sitting there - that's the most nervous I've ever been in my life," said Holthus, who won a national championship with her Club Fusion team last season and was MVP of the national finals. "Meg's run really settled us down."

Game 2 was never in doubt. The Rockets jumped ahead 6-2 and Payton never got closer than 3 the rest of the way. A 6-point serving run by sophomore Audrey Djukic made it a 15-6 gane and even when the Grizzlies sided out at that point they showed little positive emotion. BC led by as many as 13 points twice, at 23-10 and then the final score.

"Congratulations to Burlington Central," said Payton coach Joel Anderson, whose team today will take home the Chicago Public League's first-ever trophy from a state girls volleyball tournament. "They're a fine team and Holthus is a great player.

"Just making it down here is an accomplishment for us. The girls set their sites on making the Final Four and they made it."

Junior Taylor Scully added 4 kills for the Rockets. Scully is playing in her fourth straight state final tournament and has a state championship medal from her days with Evangelical Christian High School in Tampa, Fla.

"This is so much better," Scully said. "Our girls are so much closer and focused. And this arena is tighter. The fans are a lot closer."

Turk added 18 assists, 7 digs and 3 kills for the Rockets, helping assure herself and the other BC seniors that their final high school match will be for all the marbles.

"Everyone played solid tonight," said Turk, still nursing a sore back she's had since the postseason started. "Everyone just played their roles nicely. We knew exactly what we had to do."

The Rockets did just that, and now they will finish the season playing for a state championship.

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