Team performs well at stacked Sprawl
By Mike Ramczyk
By Andrew Horschak
Sports Correspondent
Round two goes to the Falcons.
In a battle for first place in the Southern Lakes Conference Tuesday night in Paddock Lake, Westosha Central overpowered Burlington in three sets, 25-22, 25-18, 25-16.
The Lady Demons nearly had a negative hitting percentage overall, at 4 percent, as two players had negative totals.
After the second set, coach Teri Leach moved senior hitter Alyssa Turzenski to libero in an attempt to switch things up, but the Falcons, who also beat Burlington in a tournament earlier this season, didn’t budge.
“They are very balanced, they have a lot of weapons, and they bring hitters that can move that ball around,” Leach said after the match. “I thought we played really hard and aggressive on defense. To me, our biggest issue was our serve-receive.”
“We lost a little bit of confidence in third set, then we tried the lineup switch, but obviously it did not work.”
The loss drops Burlington to 4-1 in the Southern Lakes Conference and 26-7 overall, while Central improves to 5-0 and 29-7.
Megan Wallace led the attack with five kills.
Kaeley Blake and Reba Thomsen each added nine assists.
Brooklyn Vandehei led the team with 14 digs.
Kaeley Mueller led Central with 14 kills, and Kennedy Muff added 11 assists and six blocks.
“I think we showed that we can compete with them and that as long as we can stay in system we can be successful,” said Thomsen, who added six digs. “Overall our season is going well, but we know we still have work to do and as long as we work hard and stick together, we can play with anyone.”
The Demons could see Central two more times this season, an Oct. 8 invite and the SLC tournament Oct. 15.
Burlington returns home Tuesday, Oct. 4, against Union Grove.
Girls 9th at top tourney
Over the years, the annual Lynn LaPorte Sprawl in West Bend has served as a stern midseason test for the state’s powerhouse girls volleyball programs.
Burlington could not duplicate the championship of 2014 or the runner-up finish of last season, but the Demons still placed a respectable ninth out of 24 teams in the high-powered tourney on Saturday, Sept. 24.
Neenah (No. 2 in Division 1) defeated Waukesha Catholic Memorial (No. 1 in Division 2) for the title.
Burlington (26-6 overall) finished 4-3 in the two-day event. In Friday’s pool-play matches, the Demons swept Oostburg (25-19, 25-16) and West Bend East (25-17, 25-17) before losing in three sets to fourth-ranked Menomonee Falls (17-25, 25-21, 7-15).
On Saturday, Burlington was swept by Catholic Memorial (18-25, 21-25) and Nicolet (23-25, 15-25), but bounced back to beat Greendale (25-13, 25-15) and ninth-ranked Brookfield East (27-29, 25-21, 15-11).
Abby Koenen collected 35 kills and six blocks – both team highs – in the seven matches and Alyssa Turzenski added 34 kills, 26 digs and 12 service aces to pace the Demons. Angie Tuchel (25), Megan Wallace (24), Brooklyn VandeHei (23) and Reba Thomsen (20) also topped 20 kills.
Maddie Berezowitz led the defense with 42 digs.
Thomsen and Kaley Blake combined for 123 assists, 51 digs and 18 aces.
On Tuesday, Sept. 20, Burlington improved to 4-0 in the Southern Lakes Conference with a 25-17, 25-17, 25-16 victory over visiting Waterford as VandeHei and Wallace led the way with eight kills apiece.
Other team leaders were Blake (18 assists, three aces) and Berezowitz (12 digs).
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