Burlington Central soars past Payton

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NORMAL -- Disappointment was etched on the face of Payton’s Courtney Cunningham after her Payton team was beaten by Burlington Central 25-19, 25-12 in the Class 3A semifinals Friday in Redbird Arena.

“Today just wasn’t our day,” Cunningham said. “It was hard to sit there and watch it (when she rotated out of the lineup). I felt a lot of emotions.

“But win or lose, it was an amazing experience,” she added. “For us to play on a court that big. We’re used to small, creaky gyms. The bright lights. The crowd. It was an amazing experience.”

Burlington Central (35-6) rode the hot right arm of Northwestern recruit Stephanie Holthus, who finished with a 3A record 17 kills. Holthus had seven kills and two aces while the Rockets extended a 14-10 lead in Game 1.

“I wish we had more time to prepare for (Holthus),” Payton coach Joel Anderson said. “She didn’t do anything we didn’t know she would do. Our defense just never got set up. I’m a little stunned. It’s all in the preparation.”

Payton was also unable to execute its offensive game plan, which was the pound the ball down the middle behind Cunningham and 6-foot-2 sophomore Mari Faines (three kills).

“We just didn’t have many opportunities to do that,” Anderson said. “We weren’t handling the ball.”

Keeping the ball away from Cunningham and Faines was Burlington Central’s top priority.

“We had a good scouting report on them in terms of what they wanted to do,” Burlington Central coach Marv Leavitt said. “Our goal was to keep them off the net. Our serves were really effective. If you just let them get the ball to the middle, you’re going to be in trouble.”

Burlington Central also got four kills from Taylor Scully and 18 assists from Molly Turk. Sophomore Roxanne Rivera had 11 assists for Payton (37-2) and sophomore Nora Banaszek added five digs. Freshman Michelle Schultz added two kills.

“We’ll have to toughen our freshman and sophomores up for tomorrow,” Cunningham said. “Don’t expect to see the same team tomorrow.”