Alyssa DeTamble takes Burlington Central to sweep

It would be hard to imagine a better night spent in a gym than the one Burlington Central’s Alyssa DeTamble had on Wednesday.

Not only did DeTamble have an all-around great game against Genoa-Kingston with nine kills, seven digs and three blocks, the senior’s five aces also gave her 98 to set a new single-season program record.

Toss in a bouquet of flowers on Senior Night, and DeTamble was riding high after her side’s 25-9, 25-18 win, which completed a perfect conference record for this year’s Big Northern East champs.

“She plays great defense and she just pounds the ball,” Central coach Marv Leavitt said. “And she’s obviously one of the best servers I’ve ever had here.”

The Rockets’ previous season record for aces was 94, set by 2009 graduate and former high school all-American, Stephanie Holthus.

“It’s such an amazing feeling to get the record,” DeTamble said. “I can’t thank my team enough. Everyone is so amazing and they push me in practice. And we came out with so much intensity. We just blew that first game out of the water.”

Burlington Central (29-6, 14-0) led 12-3 in Game 1 on the serving strength of DeTamble and Lauren Wiltsie, who had five aces along with four digs and three kills.

A 6-1 scoring run gave the Rockets an 18-4 over Genoa Kingston (23-6-1, 13-2) on the way to the win. The Rockets also beat the Cogs in straight sets on Sept. 30.

“We had the mindset that they got better and were coming after us, so we had to prepare even harder,” Wiltsie said of the rematch. “We watched tape and we knew what they liked to do.”

Genoa-Kingston coach Keith Foster was happy to see Game 1 in the rearview mirror.

“We made more errors than they made,” Foster said. “BC played very well but we didn’t help ourselves, and we showed some mental toughness in battling back from a tough first set.”

Game 2 was nip-and-tuck to a 16-16 tie before the Rockets pulled away, finishing on a DeTamble kill, but the Cogs fought well in the loss.

“We didn’t show up ready but in the second set we were much better,” Genoa’s Breea Rogalla said. “We’re so young and I tried to tell the girls to just have fun. Once we started doing that, we played much better.”

Maddy Barry had eight assists and six kills for the Rockets, Emily Bozich had three kills, and Alexis VanHiel finished with six kills.