Grayhounds dog Demons

BURLINGTON - The mark of a good team is when it doesn't have it's 'A” game and still is able to get a win.

Burlington High School did that Tuesday against the visitors from Washington in a Southeast Conference volleyball match. The Grayhounds swept to a 3-0 victory to improve to 16-2 on the year and 4-0 in the league. Washington falls to 6-14 overall, 2-2 in the conference.

The Demons have lost six consecutive matches after defeating Fairfield Sept. 10.

'We have been telling the kids that the best teams come out and dominate and take care of business,” Burlington coach Amber Taeger said. 'If we want to be the team that we think we are, we have to take care of games like this and we did that. Of course, we have things we still need to work on, but that is a good problem to have.”

The first set began with BHS taking a 3-1 lead, but the set was tied at 4-4 and 6-6 before Washington coach Lexa Mahr called timeout trailing 12-6. Washington's Addison Six connected on a kill to stop the BHS run at 16-7. An Alexa Mitchell kill capped a 5-4 Demon run and Taeger called time with a 20-12 lead.

'The frustrating thing for us was that we played (Monday) night in the Holy Trinity tournament in the championship game at 10:45 p.m.,” Taeger said. 'I saw a lot different team than what I saw (Tuesday). It seemed like our chemistry was a little off and our communication was a little off, but our girls really worked hard and they get along well. We work a lot in practice on getting our quicks together. When other issues arrive, our kids do a great job of handling them.”

BHS handled the rest of the set for a 25-14 win and continued to handle things in the second set, breezing to a 25-6 win.

The only Demon offensive points were consecutive Six kills for an 11-2 and 11-3 score and a Kaitlyn Mitchell kill from the back row at 23-6.

'That one was tough,” Six said. 'We did not play together as a team. We have to do a better job with our focus and playing as a team. When we have a good up, we have to take advantage of it. We have to get the next ball up and then the next one and just keep playing and not get down.”

It was 5-0 BHS in the third, but a Olivia Marek block got the Demons' second point at 8-2 and consecutive aces from Six got Washington within 8-6, prompting a BHS timeout.

Washington called timeout down 17-8. Hannah Anderson and Marek combined on a block and Samantha Farmer connected for a kill to make it 20-12, but it ended 25-14.

'Burlington just hit the ball where we were not,” Six said. 'We need to do a better job of getting to our defensive spots. We need to do a better job of picking ourselves up when we get down. We have to push ourselves harder in practice. We need to focus on getting to our spot and not cheating. We did show fight at times, but we need to keep it going throughout the whole match.”

Washington plays at Mid-Prairie Saturday.