Whip-Purs going downstate for first time
The Whip-Pur express just keeps on rolling. Next stop: Normal.
Hampshire's girls volleyball team punched its ticket to the Class 2A Final Four Monday night state by defeating Westmont, 25-19, 25-8, in the Hampshire supersectional. It's the first time Hampshire's volleyball team has gone to state.
The Whips (36-3) will play Chicago Christian at 11:30 a.m. Friday in the quarterfinals at Redbird Arena in Normal.
With a packed house at the Purple Palace on its feet, Jaclyn Clai's spike was blocked out of bounds and the crowd rushed the court as the Whips completed the sweep.
"It's just a once-in-a-lifetime feeling that you just treasure forever," said Amy Wehrs, whose 13 kills and 4 aces helped power the win. "It's one of the things that I'm going to tell my children about."
Hampshire showed some jitters early, making some uncharacteristic mistakes in the first game. But the Whips scored 6 of the final 7 points to put the game away.
The second game was no contest as the Whips roared out to an 8-1 lead and never looked back.
"We really didn't come out playing to our fullest potential," said Hampshire's Jena Karkos,, who slammed 10 kills. "Then after awhile we realized that this is not how we play, we can play so much better. In the second game, we just came out and really wanted it; we really pushed for it."
Coach Karen Whitehouse acknowledged that the raucous setting may have thrown the Whips off their game early.
"The atmosphere and the entire environment threw us off a little," she said. "In the second game we knew we could control all the unforced errors in game one that made it so close. We knew that if we could control things on our side, we'd be in good shape."
"We just had to calm our nerves and then we started playing a little bit better," said the Whips' Jen Kondrat.
Setter Kara Wehrs had 27 assists. Kondrat came up with 15 digs, and Clai had 5 blocks for the Whips.
Karkos noted that the Whips will send the old high school out in style in its final year, adding a volleyball banner to those for the football, girls basketball, and girls soccer teams.
Westmont never led. The Sentinels got as close as 1 point a couple of times in the first game before Hampshrie pulled away.
Game 2 was never in doubt. Two Westmont errors got Hampshire off to a great start with Kara Wehrs at the service stripe. A hard kill by Amy Wehrs followed by a tip and the Whips were off and running.
With Hampshire already ahead by 10, Kara Wehrs served 5 straight points, including 2 monster kills by sister Amy, and an ace. After Westmont got a point on a Hampshire error, Amy Wehrs' kill made it 22-8 and got the serve back. She then served the final 3 points.