Either way it went Saturday night, there was going to be a first-time champion in the WIAA Division 1 state girls’ volleyball tournament.
As it turned out, it swung Burlington’s way.
The Demons survived a scrappy challenge by Fond du Lac in the first two games, and then blew the Cardinals off the court in game three, winning 25-21, 25-20, 25-8.
Burlington, which held the No. 1 ranking in the state for much of the year after winning the Thomas More Joust, survived a great deal of adversity this season, including having its three star juniors – Ciara Capezio, Kaysie Shebeneck and Morganne Longoria – all go out injured at the Westosha Smash.
But even the most seriously injured (Capezio with a torn meniscus) made it back for the state tournament, and combined with the play from seven seniors, made the most of the team’s third straight trip to state.
“It feels absolutely amazing,” said junior libero Morganne Longoria. “This is what we set our goal for. We earned it. This is our year, and we’re state champs.
“It felt amazing.”
Capezio led the Demons with 14 kills on the evening, and had eight errors – most of which came in the second set as BHS started to make a few more errors. But the Demons survived the mistakes, and forced Fond du Lac into a pair of errors that ended the second set.
In the third set, Burlington got the ball back at 4-4 with senior Emma Ketterhagen serving. She ran off 10 straight points before Fondy knew what had happened, and the Demons cruised from there.
For more highlights, please see the blog below:
Good evening, folks, this is Jennifer Eisenbart online from the Resch Center in Green Bay, where we are about to start the WIAA Division 1 state championship game between Burlington and Fond du Lac.
It is the first time in the title game for both squads. Per WIAA regulations, we cannot do live play-by-play, so updates will come at timeouts and set breaks. Please hit refresh often.
5:18 p.m. – Burlington will be in its tie-dye orange shirts today, which is also featured prominently on their state t-shirts: “Teamwork makes the dream work” on the front and “Go tie-dyes!” on the back.
5:30 p.m. – And we’re about to start. Both sets of fans are out in force tonight, so it should be a great night for some fun volleyball!
5:32 p.m. – 5-0 BHS run to start the game, and Fondy grabs a timeout.
5:42 p.m. – This time it’s time for a BHS timeout, with Fondy back within 16-13 on five straight points. Fondy is getting hot now.
5:48 p.m. – Another Fondy timeout at 22-19B. This has turned into whoever is going to play the best defense. Both teams are getting some strong hits, and good blocks as well.
5:50 p.m. – BHS survives set one and wins 25-21.
5:58 p.m. – First timeout of the set is by Fondy, trailing 8-6. BHS fell behind early, but got a lucky line call, and leads.
6:08 p.m. – BHS timeout, trailing 17-15 following a two-hit on the set by Kaysie Shebeneck. BHS has made a lot more errors in this set so far, with Capezio missing two in a row long at the back line by inches.
6:12 p.m. – BHS now leads 23-20 with a Fondy timeout. Just incredible hitting on both sides of the net. Incidentally, neither student section is going to win a sportsmanship award, with the Fondy students finding new and original ways of being insulting, and the BHS student section screaming at the Fondy bench throughout the timeout.
6:15 p.m. – Two Fondy errors give BHS set two, 25-20. BHS now leads two games to none – in pursuit of the first state team championship (at least as far as anyone here knows, certainly in the last 30 years).
6:24 p.m. – Fondy timeout with BHS up 8-4 in set three.
6:42 p.m. – BHS wins set three 25-8 – and the state title. Much more coming, as we will have at least a photo and some comments.
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