BHS boys claim SEC title

By Jennifer Eisenbart
SPORTS EDITOR
The Burlington High School boys volleyball team wasn’t perfect Saturday at the Southeast Conference tour-nament.
In fact, the Demons even lost a set in pool play, forcing them in a position where they had to sweep rival Westosha Central to win the pool.
Burlington did just that, and went on to sweep Racine Horlick in the semifinals and Racine Case in the finals for the SEC title.
BHS is now 32-4 overall, and still ranked second in the state.
Demon coach Tim Gesteland said that the set loss to Kenosha Bradford actually motivated his team.
“They knew they needed to beat Westosha Central twice,” said Gesteland, refer-ring to needing the two-set sweep. “If anything, it gave them a little more firepower.”
Burlington opened the tournament by sweeping Park 25-13, 25-14 and Kenosha Indian Trails 25-8, 25-11. But after winning game one against Bradford 25-11, BHS rotated in its subs, fell behind early and couldn’t quite rally, falling 28-26.
With the top spot in the pool on the line, BHS swept Westosha 25-23, 25-14.
In the semifinals, BHS beat Horlick – which won a one-game tiebreaker with Tremper to earn the second spot in pool B – 25-15, 25-17, and then beat Case 25-20, 25-15.
Every player on the team got on the stats sheet, thought Nolan Rueter led BHS with 32 kills, while Carson Bie-drzycki added 27, Ben Geiger 24 and Nick Barlett 18. Sen-ior setter Zach Gesteland finished with 97 assists, while libero Garrett Schilling had 37 digs.
Zach Gesteland, Rueter and Schilling all earned first-team SEC honors, while Bartlett and Biedrzycki earned second team. For the first time ever, BHS had the Player of the year – in Zach Gesteland.
“I’ve had some amazing kids,” said Gesteland, who was not allowed to vote for his own players on the SEC squad. “Those guys, they never got it.”
The WIAA playoff brack-et was announced last week, and the Demons earned the No. 1 seed – and a first-round bye – in their sectional. BHS will play the winner of Brad-ford vs. Tremper at home Oct. 30 at 7 p.m.
The winner of that match will advance to the sectional final, which is scheduled for Nov. 1 at Westosha Central at 7 p.m.