Girls volleyball: Crystal Lake Central upends Hampshire

Paced by the strong attacks of its two freshman hitters, Crystal Lake Central defeated Hampshire in two sets, 25-16, 25-10 Thursday night.

Camryn Hausler and Olivia Anderson combined for 11 kills in the Fox Valley Conference girls volleyball match at Hampshire.

"We really talked a lot about executing on our side especially from behind the service line. We were serving tough and aggressive, trying to keep Hampshire out of system," said Central coach Lisa Brunstrum. "That gave us a chance to attack from the front row and run some of the different offensive plays we've been working on."

"It was a pretty rough night. We thought we were prepared going into this match. We knew they're going to be strong on the outside," said first-year Hampshire coach Lauren Jensen. "So we were really just tried to play our best defense around their solid outside hitters. Our defense just wasn't keeping up."

Hausler, who had 6 kills, gave credit to her setters.

"I definitely think it was a setters who helped out a lot," the outside hitter said. "They set me up in really good plays today."

Anderson, in addition to her 5 kills, had 2 blocks.

The Tigers' strong serving also disrupted the Whip-Purs' offense.

In the first set, Hampshire (4-5, 1-3) was only able to score consecutive points twice. Early in the contest, the Whips scored 3 straight points on a Riley Seagren's strike (4 kills), a block and a Central hitting error, narrowing the gap to 14-7.

Later, Hampshire rallied for 4 straight points on Tiger errors and blocks, but still trailed, 20-13.

Central's Emily Kelly scored the winning point on one of her 3 aces.

In the second set, the Whip-Purs kept pace early, tying the game at 3 all. Central (2-2, 2-2) regained the lead on a Hampshire service error and took control of the contest with an 18-7 run.

"Our passing was disappointing tonight which played a factor in our offense," Jensen said. "We were not able to run anything out of the front row."