Freshman O'Reilly delivers for Burlington Central

Playing your first high school game can be intimidating.

But for Burlington Central freshman Allie O'Reilly things seemed to get pretty intense during Thursday's volleyball season opener.

O'Reilly, who was a fan favorite of the vocal Rockets' student section, didn't blink as she sailed an ace into the back row of the St. Edward defense to clinch a 25-17 victory in Game 2, with Central winning the nonconference match 25-21, 25-17.

"She did a great job," Rockets' coach Marv Leavitt said. "You think she'd feel the pressure with all the fans calling her name, but she was ice out there."

O'Reilly's ace capped off a potent Rockets' offensive attack in Game 2. After a close Game 1, Central broke away with a 7-2 run to go up 18-11 - the largest lead in the match. Kaitlyn O'Reilly (3 kills) recorded back-to-back kills putting Central ahead 12-9. The two teams exchanged points off hitting errors, before Audrey Djukic (4 kills) smacked a ball past the Green Wave (0-1) defense to give Central a 16-11 lead.

Kaitlyn O'Reilly notched her second ace of the match and Hayley Brake got a kill, giving Central a 18-11 lead.

"We wanted to come out strong," Kaitlyn O'Reilly said. "Once we got rid of the jitters, we knew that the second game was ours. We got a lot of good swings because of our defense."

Sophomore Hannah Yoder led the Rockets with 6 kills and outside hitter Sydney Sand added 3 in the victory.

Central was never able to take full control of Game 1, but the Green Wave was never quite able to get back in it either. The Rockets never led by more than 3 points until the game points. But despite coming within 1 point 8 times and tying the game once after Central broke a 10-all tie, he Green Wave could never close the gap.

"We played well. I thought we kept up with them for the most part," St. Edward coach Jaime Dovichi said. "They ran a really nice offense. It kept us on our toes. We never really knew where the ball was going."

After coming within 22-21 off a Katie Ayello service point, St. Edward had 3 hitting errors to end the first game, something that the Green Wave know they need to work on.

"We have to communicate better," said Ayello, who finished with 8 digs and 1 kill. "If we would have let the ball go out (on serve receive), we could have had a few more points."

Sarah Norman added 3 kills and 5 digs in the loss.