By Mike Ramczyk
For the seventh time in eight seasons, the Burlington girls volleyball team can call itself champion.
That’s because the Lady Demons played their best volleyball of the season when it mattered most Saturday afternoon at Burlington High School, despite missing a six-rotation starter in Brooklyn Vandehei.
Couple that with the fact rival Westosha Central hadn’t given one game to Burlington in three previous matches, and one could argue the deck was stacked in the Southern Lakes Conference championship match.
But Burlington played loose and fast with extreme confidence, and came away with a hard-fought 28-26, 25-22, 30-28 victory.
The Falcons won the regular season conference title, so Westosha and Burlington shared the SLC crown with 26 overall points.
Union Grove and Wilmot tied for third with 16 points.
“Beyond excited,” said head coach Teri Leach of the win. “We knew we wanted to compete. We haven’t played our best game against them all year. They caused some of that, but we felt like we never played confidently and haven’t given our best effort.”
“We played loose and controlled the ball a lot better. We know we have the offense when we do that.”
Several lineup changes highlighted the day, as Kaley Blake came in for a 5-1 set, which forced Reba Thomsen to focus on ball control.
Furthermore, Abby Koenen moved from the right to the left and played six rotations.
The fresh lineups paid off, as Koenen hammered home the game-winning ace in game one and game-winning kill in game three.
Koenen, a junior, led the Demons with 35 kills in the tournament, hit 37 percent for the afternoon.
“We were always in control, and we had nothing to lose,” Koenen said. “We played for each other.”
Senior Reba Thomsen, who tallied 20 kills and 11 digs, was an emotional and vocal leader on the court.
“We weren’t tense, and we were loose the entire time,” Thomsen said. “We were focused.”
Fellow senior Alyssa Turzenski, who had 33 digs and 22 kills, said the team knew what it had to do based on a good week of practice and executed.
“It shows we have it in us to make it all the way,” Thomsen said. “If we keep fighting and working hard, the goal is definitely in reach.”
Megan Wallace added 23 kills, and Angie Tuchel had 20.
Blake dished out 96 assists.
Maddie Berezowitz paced the squad with 37 digs.
Burlington overcame an early deficit in game three, and games one and two were back-and-forth.
Earlier in the day, Burlington defeated Waterford, 21-25, 25-19, 25-18, 25-12, and Lake Geneva Badger, 25-13, 25-16.
Leach said the team has been flat at times lately, and it was nice to see the girls display a spirited effort in time for the WIAA postseason, which begins Thursday with a home match against seventh-seeded Elkhorn.
Burlington earned the No. 2 seed.
“It showed our depth and ability to step up,” Leach said. “And we played outside the box. All year long, we’ve tried to get them to believe in themselves. It’s good to see good, aggressive, confident volleyball.”
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