Rockets advance after thrilling victory

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STERLING -- Advance scouting and a tough regular-season schedule can do wonders for a team. Just ask the Burlington Central volleyball team.

The Rockets came out Tuesday and shocked previously unbeaten LaSalle-Peru, winning 25-23, 18-25, 25-23 in the semifinals of the Sterling Class 3A Sectional.

Central (32-6) is now in the Sweet Sixteen and will play for the sectional crown Thursday against Freeport.

"The positive thing for us is that we played a really tough schedule," said Central coach Marv Leavitt. "We've been pushed by these teams and lost some matches, but it made us stronger. You could tell tonight."

After a dramatic Game 1 win, the Rockets fell in Game 2 to set up a decisive Game 3. Like it had been all night, it was a back-and-forth battle that the Rockets gutted out.

With Central up 22-21, junior Stephanie Holthus -- who had been relatively held in check the whole night by a tall and well-disciplined Cavaliers team -- came through with two consecutive kills to put Central up 24-21.

The Cavs (36-1) rallied to make it 24-23 before Holthus closed out the match with her 18th kill of the night.

"We didn't want to give them any more momentum," said Holthus. "I think when I got that final kill, it was just a relief off my shoulder. I just knew I wanted to put the ball away."

Throughout the match, senior Molly Turk proved that she listened to the scouting reports and came up with several misdirections and tip kills against a formidable LP front line.

"We had people that helped us with scouting them, and we were just so prepared, and we had no doubt in our minds," said Turk, who finished with 12 kills and 22 assists.

Central mounted a late rally in Game 1. Trailing 22-20, the Rockets came up with an amazing play on defense to turn what looked like a kill from LP's Jazzmyne Robbins into a Rockets' point. That, after a tough dig allowed Central to hit the ball over the net for a score.

"That very well could have been the turning point in the match," Leavitt said.