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Girls volleyball: Kaneland notches victory over Burlington Central

There was something noticeably different about the Burlington Central sideline on Tuesday night. For the first time in 11 years legendary girls volleyball coach Marv Leavitt wasn't on the bench.

Leavitt stepped down from coaching at the end of last season after amassing over 700 wins with three schools over a 25-year coaching career. The Rockets were also without new coach Mehgan Blahnik, a long time Leavitt assistant. She is out on maternity leave and is expected to be back to take over the reigns next week.

In the meantime the post Leavitt-era got off to a bit of a rough start as the Rockets dropped their season opener to visiting Kaneland 25-19, 25-23. Central was plagued by 28 unforced errors.

"There has been a lot of changes and the girls have done a great job adjusting, but I think the nerves got the best of them tonight," said first-year assistant coach Samantha Manzier, who is filling in for Blahnik. "It's a brand new young team. We are still keeping some of the traditions of coach Leavitt's going and at the same time starting some new things and I think the response to the change has been really positive. We were up against a tough team tonight."

Kaneland is also going through some changes of its own after graduating several seniors from last years squad that went 24-9. The Knights had 3 sophomores starting against Central. One of those sophomores Katie Jablonski stepped up to lead the Knights with 7 kills.

"We had some nerves under us, but I thought we did a good job of overcoming that and came out strong," Kaneland coach Cyndi Violett said. "There were times when we lost the momentum, but I thought we always did a good job of getting it right back. One of the things I was really pleased with was the movement along the front. We did a really good job with our slides.'

In Game 1 the Knights broke a 6-6 tie with 4 straight points to take the lead 10-6. Jablonski and Alex Anderson had kills to help give Kaneland the lead. The Knights stretched the lead to 7 points on three occasions and led the rest of the way.

The Knights appeared to be cruising to victory in Game 2 when they went up 13-6. However, the Rockets rallied with a 10-2 run to pull ahead 16-15. Madison Leone led the surge for the Rockets with 3 kills during the run.

However, 7 unforced errors down the stretch did the Rockets in as the Knights recaptured the lead. Jessica Weber, Chloe Filipski, and Anderson each had big kills for the Knight as they closed out the win.

"I easily could have called a time out when we fell behind," said Violett. "But I wanted to give the kids a chance to fight through it without me telling them what to do. We finally started getting the ball back to the middle."

Leone had a team high 6 kills for Central.

  Burlington Central's Summer Smith goes for a block against Kaneland's Chloe Filipski Tuesday in Burlington. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
  Kaneland's Hannah Nauert takes a shot against Burlington Central's Kathryn Schmidt Tuesday in Burlington. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
  Kaneland's Jessica Weber smashes the ball into the defense of Burlington Central's Maddie Lenschow and Kathryn Schmidt, left, Tuesday in Burlington. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
  Kaneland's Jessica Nguyen stretches for a ball against Burlington Central Tuesday in Burlington. John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com
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