Girls volleyball: Burlington Central outlasts Dundee-Crown for first FVC victory

CARPENTERSVILLE – Burlington Central had trouble finishing last week, leading to two losses, so the Rockets worked on fixing that part of their game entering play Monday.

So far, so good.

Central grabbed its second victory in two days with a 25-23, 21-25, 25-22 win against Dundee-Crown on Tuesday in Fox Valley Conference action.

“We talked a lot about finishing after last week,” first-year Central coach Julia Smagacz said. “We’ve been working a lot on trust on the court. This is a very young team. We’ve got four sophomores and a freshman in our starting lineup.

“Getting them to trust each other and having them realize, ‘We can finish a game, and we can push the other team when we’re down’ is important. That resilience is all coming from the upperclassmen, and it’s trickling down to the whole team.”

Central (2-2, 1-2 FVC) was coming off its first win of the season Monday, a two-set win against DeKalb. The Rockets opened the year with FVC losses to Hampshire and Prairie Ridge.

Smagacz has seen a different look from her team this week.

“I definitely think this is a confidence booster,” Smagacz said. “This shows them that we are capable of coming back, even if we drop a set. ... I hope this will be a tipping point for them, we’ve got some real tough opponents coming up.”

The Rockets finished 22-16 and 9-9 in FVC play last season, but lost their top two players, Addy Nava and Rylie Hahn, to graduation. Senior outside hitter Brooke Hoffman is taking over a key role in the offense. On Tuesday, Hoffman led the Rockets with 13 kills, including five in the final set, and two blocks.

Burlington trailed, 19-17, in the third set, but responded with a 5-0 run out of a Rockets’ timeout. Freshman middle blocker Peyton Strout (three kills, five blocks) and Hoffman each had a block during the run, Sarah Jack had an ace, and Leah Freesemann added a kill.

Ashley Arceo (17 assists, five kills) and Jack both finished with three aces for the Rockets, and Rachel Burton had two. Freesemann had seven kills and two aces, and Brianna Gritzman led the defense with 15 digs.

The Chargers (2-1, 2-1) cut the lead to 23-22, but a service error by D-C and a kill by Freesemann ended the match.

“In the huddle [during the final timeout], we were really looking at each other and hyping each other up,” Hoffman said. “That’s a big thing with our team. We’re really uplifting, even when we’re down, we try to stay consistent. I’m so proud of us for coming back. We were really focused in the end.”

Hoffman said communication was key for the Rockets.

“We were talking about what was working and what wasn’t,” Hoffman said. “We picked it up on our serve-receive and really focused again. We just gave each other the encouragement we needed.”

Dundee-Crown was led by Audrey Prusko with 11 kills and four blocks and Kylie Hanson with nine kills and 10 assists. Courtney Komperda recorded 18 assists and four aces, Sydney Komperda had 10 digs, and Rachel Piluski added six aces and seven digs.

The Chargers already surpassed their FVC win total from last season with wins against Cary-Grove and Hampshire. All three of D-C’s matches so far have gone to three sets.

“I’m very pleased with the start to the season,” Chargers coach Tiffany Dumas said. “They’re playing together, and they’re playing for each other. I’ll take this loss in three [sets] with that heart and fight. We had a couple crucial errors late there. We missed a couple of serves, and that’s one thing we can control. That kind of got in our heads tonight.”

Hoffman said Tuesday’s win left the Rockets feeling good.

“It feels great,” Hoffman said. “We have some great girls, and we’re definitely a younger team, but I’m really excited to see what we can do with our potential. If we work our butts off, I think we can definitely make it to the top two or three of the conference.”