Girls volleyball: Burlington Central falls in opener

Burlington Central may have lost its girls volleyball season opener on Wednesday night 25-17, 25-23 to visiting Rockford Lutheran, but the Rockets can certainly take solace in the way they finished.

Central was all but counted out after playing poorly in the first game and falling behind 16-8 at one point in the second game. However, the Rockets rallied with a 9-0 run behind the serving of Leah Murphy to pull ahead 17-16 and still led 22-21 late in the second game. But the valiant late rally fell short as the Crusaders scored 4 of the last 5 points to hold on for the win.

"We took a while to settle down tonight," said Central coach Marv Leavitt. "There is a lot to work on, but we were able to make some nice adjustments and finish strong. So, it was nice to see us battle and hopefully we can learn from this."

Murphy had 3 aces for Central during the late run. However, it was the serving game on both sides of the net that the Rockets struggled with the most throughout the match. Central had 10 serving errors in all and allowed 7 aces. The Crusaders' Mackenzie Zanello scored 4 aces during a 6-0 run to start the second game.

"We certainly have to do a better job in the serve and serve receive battle," said Leavitt. "I think we are a strong serving team, but tonight we were missing a lot. Hopefully, it was just a matter of getting over the opening-game nerves. But both of those areas are something we will definitely have to focus on."

The Rockets, who are still looking to gel after losing 8 seniors from last year's Big Northern East championship team, were just 19 of 27 (71 percent) on kill attempts. Meanwhile Rockford Lutheran, which already has a second-place finish at the Metea Valley Invite last weekend, looked much sharper. The Crusaders connected on 22 of 24 (92 percent) of their kill attempts.

"Give Rockford Lutheran credit, " said Leavitt. "They are a real good team. They serve well, play good defense, and do a great job of getting the ball to their strong outside hitters. It was a tough test to open the season."

Abby Woollacott and Zanello combined for 16 kills for Rockford Lutheran. Game 1 was tied at 15-15 before the Crusaders ripped off 7 kills and an ace down the stretch.

Summer Smith had 7 kills to lead the Rockets. Megan Lomas and Lexi VanHiel added 5 kills each. Lexi DeWaard had 16 assists for Central.

"I think we had some first-game jitters," said VanHiel. "We'll be all right. We were able to pick it up and fight back at the end. So that's a good sign moving forward. We just have to stick together."