Demons face #4 Janesville Craig in sectional semifinal tonight at Stoughton
By Mike Ramczyk
After a trip to the WIAA Division 1 state championship match last season, the Burlington girls volleyball team’s quest to return to Green Bay opened with a bang Saturday night.
In their last home match Saturday, the top-seeded Lady Demons needed four games to knock off a pesky No. 8 Kenosha Bradford squad, 28-26, 25-13, 22-25, 25-18.
With the victory, Burlington improved to 30-10 and will advance to a WIAA Division 1 sectional, where it will play No. 4 Janesville Craig Thursday at 5 p.m at Stoughton High School.
After the match, No. 3 Westosha Central will battle No. 2 Milton at 7 p.m. on the same court.
Burlington head coach Teri Leach acknowledged that Bradford was far from a typical 8 seed.
“Tough-fought win,” Leach said. “Bradford played a great match and put pressure on us in every part of our game. We had to battle through some different lineups and found a way to stick together and win.”
Abby Koenen led the attack with 15 kills, and Maddie Berezowitz added nine.
Brooklyn Vandehei, Emily Alan and Coley Haggard each added eight kills.
Defensively, Sam Naber paced the team with 25 digs.
Kaley Blake dished out 30 assists, and Vandehei added 19.
Boys finish perfect in SLC
With a goal of finishing the Southern Lakes Conference season 8-0, the Burlington boys volleyball team quickly took care of business Tuesday night at Union Grove.
Behind nine kills and nine digs and 27 assists from David Paul, the Demons swept the Broncos, 25-22, 25-11, 25-21, to improve to 21-9-1 and 8-0 in the SLC.
Burlington, a No. 3 seed in the WIAA playoffs, will host No. 6 Fort Atkinson Friday night at Burlington High School at 7 p.m.
On Tuesday, Burlington coach Mike Jones said the Demons started slow with serve-receive and connecting with hitters and were down 21-17 in the first set.
But after a timeout, Burlington closed on an 8-1 run to win.
That was all it took, and the Demons played well the rest of the night.
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