Burlington, Catholic Central on brink of state tournament
By Mike Ramczyk
Sports Editor
For the third time in five years, the Burlington and Catholic Central girls varsity volleyball squads have a chance to both bring home the coveted gold ball.
On Thursday night, the Lady Demons and Lady Toppers both swept their sectional semifinal opponents to advance to within one more victory of the WIAA state tournament at the Resch Center in Green Bay.
First, at around 6 p.m. at Elkhorn Area High School, the Demons made quick work of fourth-seeded Milton, 25-15, 25-13, 25-15.
Burlington dominated the first two games, but the Red Hawks showed fight in game three, taking their first lead of the match at 8-7.
But Ali Rueter followed with a kill, and then Quinn Spieker took over. After Milton went back up 9-8, Spieker’s powerful spike sparked a 13-5 Burlington run, and the Red Hawks were cooked.
Tay Lewis, Megan Wallace, Phoebe Hozeska and Arden Peterson were dominant at the net, as the Demon blocking was on point all night.
Spieker had a .500 hitting percentage and 12 digs. Reba Thomsen had 24 assists. Peterson had eight kills and a .583 hitting percentage, and Alyssa Turzenski had five digs.
Jalyn Krause, Maren Franzke and Abby Koenen provided punch off the bench.
Burlington will face third-seeded Westosha Central, a team it has split with in two matches this season (1-1), at 7 p.m. Saturday at Lake Geneva Badger High School in the sectional final for a berth in the state tournament in Green Bay.
The Lady Toppers swept Randolph 25-11, 25-23, 25-15 in a WIAA Division 4 sectional semifinals at Stoughton Thursday night.
Olivia Sobbe came up huge with 10 kills, four blocks and 15 digs, and Sarah Gould had 25 assists and five aces. Catholic Central (17-17) got 14 digs from Sarah Hackbarth and 13 from Emily Swanson.
Coach Mae-Mae Oberhofer joked after the game that the team is finally at .500, and now maybe teams will take the Toppers more seriously.
Catholic Central faces tough competition from larger schools all season so it can be ready for the playoffs, Oberhofer added.
She said her girls came out strong Thursday but slowed down in game two, where the Toppers only won by two.
In game three, the Toppers built leads of 17-10, 19-13 and 22-14 thanks to a lethal tip kill display by Sobbe.
Catholic Central will play Living Word Lutheran at 7 p.m. Saturday at Beaver Dam in the sectional final. Living Word defeated state-ranked Hilbert 3-2 Thursday night.
In 2011 and 2012, Burlington and Catholic Central went back-to-back in winning state titles, divisions 1 and 4, respectively. It was the first and second time in state history that two teams from the same city won state titles in the same season.
The Lady Demons and Lady Toppers will attempt to repeat history Saturday night.
Stay tuned to myracinecounty.com, and follow Mike Ramczyk on Twitter @mikeramczyk17 and LIKE the Standard Press Sports Facebook page for updates.
-
-
-
-
-