Westosha stuns injury-depleted Burlington in three games
By Mike Ramczyk
Sports Editor
Every volleyball team has an off night hitting every once in awhile.
But not like this.
On Tuesday night in Burlington, the Demons committed 30 hitting errors en route to their first Southern Lakes Conference match defeat in two years, a 25-15, 25-19, 25-18 loss to visiting Westosha Central.
Burlington, the No. 2-ranked team in Division 1 in the state, was just coming off a strong performance at last weekend’s Sprawl tournament.
But a limited Quinn Spieker and a totally different lineup couldn’t be saved by Burlington’s depth. Coach Teri Leach said she hasn’t seen anything quite like Tuesday’s performance.
“We had a negative hitting percentage as a team on the night,” she said. “We had more errors than kills. I’ve never had a team hit that poorly in my career.”
“We were using lineups we weren’t in all year. We were tentative and unagressive. It was a little bit of everything. But it doesn’t excuse the loss.”
Spieker, the team’s leading hitter, wasn’t able to swing in the game, so she was relegated to the back row. Leach said Spieker has a shoulder injury.
Leach said she and the team found out at 4 p.m. Tuesday Spieker wouldn’t be available to hit, with the game beginning at 6:30 p.m. Leach said it was a total surprise, as Spieker was 100 percent at last weekend’s Sprawl.
Along with a limited Spieker, which forced libero Alyssa Turzenski to play outside hitter, setter Alyssa Wawrzyniakowski didn’t play. Wawrzyniakowski was the team’s main setter for the Sprawl.
Ali Rueter, Arden Peterson and Maren Franzke finished the match with negative hitting percentages. Burlington’s best hitting percentage was only 0.083. That belonged to Phoebe Hozeska, who had four kills and three errors.
Tay Lewis and Abby Koenen each led the team with five kills.
Spieker contributed defensively with 15 digs, and Turzenski led with 22 digs.
Assists were uncharacteristically low, as Rueter and Brooklyn Vandehei, who hasn’t seen much playing time this season, each led with nine assists.
Overall, it was an odd night of miscues and confusion.
Now, the Demons are tied with Westosha with one loss in conference.
Union Grove (5-0) is the new SLC leader.
The Broncos host Burlington Tuesday, Oct. 6, at 6:30 p.m.
The Demons must win that match and win the conference tournament to ensure a second straight conference championship.
“It was tough coming off a good weekend,” Leach said. “I’m not sure how many bodies we’ll have against Union Grove. We must execute if we want to win.”
Girls impressive at Sprawl
With a fully functional Spieker, the Demons lost in the championship of the prestigious West Bend Sprawl tournament last weekend.
Burlington defeated Arrowhead in the semifinal before facing Catholic Memorial, Division 2’s top-ranked team, Saturday afternoon.
Memorial won the first game handily, but Burlington bounced back with a 25-19 victory in game two.
In game three, Catholic Memorial blocked Hozeska to take an 11-7 lead, prompting a Burlington timeout.
A Peterson kill cut the gap to 11-9, but Memorial followed it with a kill and another block to go up 13-9.
A Spieker hammer kill cut it to 13-10, and an unforced error made it 13-11, but Memorial pulled away for a 15-12 win.
Burlington breezed to a 6-0 record and didn’t lose a game before the final.
“I’m proud of how we fought back against Memorial,” Leach said. “Overall, we were very successful. I’m happy that we got offensive contributions from everyone.”
Spieker led the way with 47 kills for the tournament, which began Friday night.
Koenen added 34 kills.
Lewis paced the squad with 14 blocks. Hozeska added nine.
Rueter had 76 assists, and Wawrzyniakowski added 65.
Defensively, Turzenski totaled 64 digs, and Spieker added 42.
Jenna Schmalfeldt tallied 27 digs.
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