The Burlington Boys Volleyball team won their third straight state championship in a very close 5 set game against South Burlington.
The number one seed BHS Seahorses came into Ross Sports Center at St. Michael’s College and faced off against the number two seeded South Burlington. Earlier in the season, BHS lost a tough game against SBHS 0-3, giving the Seahorses their only loss of the regular season.
The first two sets were neck and neck with each team winning one apiece. However, SBHS turned up the heat in the third set easily winning 25-15.
“The biggest thing for us was to play hard for every point and we did,” Maximo Dowling ’24 said. “We showed incredible mental strength to continue to fight even after going down 2-1.”
After a strong comeback in the fourth set, they were all tied up 2-2 going into the fifth and final set. Although it was an incredibly close game, the Seahorses stayed focused.
“I think that game did a great job at showing why we’re the best team in the state,” Matan London ’24 said. “SB worked hard to exploit our weaknesses and made us fight a tough mental battle…In the end, the mental strength of our team and the hard work that we put in together shone through.”
A 15-13 final set ended with fans storming the court and Burlington securing their first ever three-peat.
“For the championship game I was really really impressed with how determined and hard we fought,” coach Spencer Avery said. “Going down 2-1 after getting beat 25-15 it’s really hard to mentally come back from that. We only had one game to turn around the match and we came out super hot in the 4th set and didn’t look back.”
Since volleyball became a varsity sport in 2016, CVU and BHS have been the only schools to win the state championship. CVU went on an undefeated run from 2016-2020, and ever since then Burlington has been on top.
The BHS varsity team is losing 12 seniors (with only five Sophomores and no Juniors or Freshman returning).
“I’m sad to have all the seniors leave. They all mean so much to me,” Avery said. “The kids had such an incredible and legendary season and I’m so happy they ended it as champions, they deserved it.”
