Rockets clinch share of BNC East title

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BURLINGTON -- The Burlington Central volleyball team got homecoming week off on the right foot Tuesday by taking a step closer to securing the outright Big Northern Conference East Division title.

The Rockets clinched at least a tie for the crown with a 25-19, 25-17 victory over visiting Marengo. Central improved to 8-0 in the BNC East, two games ahead of Hampshire with two games to play.

The Rockets host Richmond-Burton this evening. Tuesday's win wasn't a very encouraging performance in the eyes of Central coach Marv Leavitt as the Rockets battled through lapses of inconsistency. Central dominated at the net and the service line with an impressive 27-4 spike-kill advantage and a 9-0 edge in service aces. However, the Rockets also had 23 unforced errors.

"Our team seems to be losing focus at a time of the year when they should be bringing it all together," said Leavitt. "We just seem to go through the motions a lot of times. A lack of intensity is sometimes a real concern to me.

"This is a very talented team, but it's really up to them how good they want to be and how far they want to go. They can make it a great finish or they can make it a disappointing one."

The Rockets (23-5) trailed through the early part of Game 1 until consecutive kills by Molly Turk, Stephanie Holthus and Meghan Zasada gave them their first lead at 12-11. The Rockets took the lead for good 13-12 on a hammer-kill by Holthus.

Zasada and Holthus each had a pair of aces to help Central extend the lead to 21-14. The Rockets coasted to the win from there in Game 1. Central played its best stretch at the start of Game 2 when it jumped out to a 10-1 lead. Turk had three aces during a nine-point service run.

"I really like what we did at the start of Game 2," said Leavitt. "We got back to playing Rocket volleyball. We were hitting strong and serving aggressively."

However, a bundle of errors down the stretch let Marengo crawl back to within five points before Turk finally ended the match with a kill.

"We always try to give it our best effort," said Turk. "But we probably weren't as focused as we could have been. There's a lot going on this week with homecoming and with senior night tomorrow but we have to look past the distractions and be more focused on the court."

Holthus led the Rockets with 11 kills. Turk had seven kills and 19 assists while Zasada added six kills. Holthus, Turk and Zasada had three aces each.