Aurora Christian makes top seed earn its way to sectional
Hampshire girls volleyball coach Karen Whitehouse has tried to stress to her team that its 31-3 regular-season record is insignificant now.
After Thursday night the Whip-Purs certainly know that.
Top-seed Hampshire had to rally in Game 2 against No. 6 seed Aurora Christian to claim the Class 2A Aurora Christian regional championship with a 25-12, 25-21 victory.
"Everyone is commenting on our record, and our record is great, but right now we're 2-0," Whitehouse said. "Right now our record doesn't mean anything. Without a trip to state we probably wouldn't feel very complete."
The Whip-Purs, who beat Plano 25-7, 25-13 earlier Thursday in the semifinals, earned their third consecutive regional championship. They will play Forreston, which won its own regional, at 6 p.m. next Thursday in the second semifinal of the Hampshire sectional.
"We've been waiting for this all year," said Hampshire senior Jena Karkos, who had a match-high 12 kills. "It's great to know that we've come this far and know that we get to go to sectionals now."
Hampshire cruised to the Game 1 victory by going on an 11-2 run after a serving error by the Whip-Purs made the score 5-4 Hampshire. Karkos had 4 kills during the stretch. Back-to-back kills from Karkos set up game point. On game point the Eagles (18-16) were unable to return the ball in the court as Hampshire took the opening game.
Aurora Christian, which beat Woodlands Academy 25-22, 25-12 earlier in the semifinals, opened a 5-1 lead in Game 2 as its blocking and defense started to frustrate the Whip-Purs. Asley Ilseman's solo block gave the Eagles the 5-1 advantage. Another Ilseman block later in the game increased Aurora Christian's lead to 15-10 and forced Whitehouse to call a timeout.
"They realized it was now or never," Eagles coach Nicole Anderson said of her team's Game 2 play. "They stepped it up and I think we even shocked Hampshire a little bit."
The Whip-Purs fought back and eventually tied the game at 19-19. With the score 20-20, an Aurora Christian serving error gave Hampshire the lead. A Jaclyn Chai kill made the score 23-21 Hampshire. The Eagles were called for back-to-back net violation to finish the match.
"We kind of let down (in the second game)," Karkos said. "Their blocking really improve in the second game. It almost seemed like everything we hit over the net they were able to get a hand on it."
Amy Wehrs added 10 kills for the Whip-Purs. Kara Wehrs finished with 25 assists.
Isleman and Chelsea Cooper each had 4 blocks for Aurora Christian. Tara Thomalla had 4 kills to lead the Eagles.