At Hampshire players graduate, not expectations
The Hampshire girls volleyball players acted like they'd been there before, even though they hadn't.
The site was Redbird Arena last November. The 2007 Whip-Purs descended on Normal with a winner's swagger, a quiet confidence infused in them by coach-leader-energizer Karen Whitehouse, who grew up expecting to win volleyball matches as a standout player at Cary-Grove High School and Eastern Illinois University and expects nothing less as a coach.
After breezing to Class 2A regional, sectional and supersectional titles without being pushed to a third game, the Whips swept Chicago Christian in a Friday state semifinal and came within 4 points of volleyball nirvana before Breese Central topped Hampshire in a classic state final match that went the distance.
During the press conference minutes after the runner-up trophy presentation, Whitehouse, aware that five of her starters were set to graduate, nevertheless said, "Hopefully, when we get back here next year it will be a different outcome."
Even though the Whip-Purs were elevated to Class 3A in the off-season with the opening of the new Hampshire High School, Whitehouse's tone hasn't changed.
"I think the higher you set your expectations and the higher a team has expectations set on them, the more you're going to find success as a program," Whitehouse said this week. "So my goals for my team will never change. Getting downstate is our ultimate goal every year, and if we work hard enough, there's no reason we can't do it."
Armed with two returning honorable mention all-state players - juniors Kara and Amy Wehrs, who committed to Kansas last week - and a group of juniors who last season went undefeated in winning the Big Northern-East title as sophomores, the Whip-Purs shrugged off the loss of five starters by winning their first 15 matches of the season.
Players graduated. Expecting to win didn't.
The Whips finally endured their first loss last week at Harvard in 3 games. But in winning its first 15 matches Hampshire girls volleyball has taken another step toward the elite level, joining top programs across the state who don't rebuild each year but reload with players trained at the underclass level and vie for state berths year after year.
"We still have more work to do, but I think we're going to get really good," Kara Wehrs said.
The 2008 Whip-Purs are junior-centric, but that's proven to be a good thing so far. Third-year starters Kara and Amy Wehrs have been reunited this season with their own class on the volleyball court for the first time in three years. Joining them are junior classmates Jennifer Hubbe (OH), Chrissy Heine (MH), Cassie Dumoulin (MH), Allison Bonkowski (RS), and libero Chessa Osiecki (L). It's a group determined to pick up where last year's team left off.
"Just watching them last year got us excited to be on the varsity team with Amy and Kara because we've been waiting since middle school to play with them again." Hubbe said.
Dumoulin and Heine are aggressive at the net. Both middles have scoring ability and force opposing teams to respect them or pay the price. That keeps defenses honest and keeps opposing coaches from keying on Amy Wehrs, who led the Whips in kills last season with 366.
Osiecki is a Club Fusion-trained libero with good volleyball bloodlines. Her sister Cassie starred for Hampshire and now plays at Northern Michigan, where she is a junior and two-year letter winner.
The Hampshire single-season record holder with 835 assists, setter Kara Wehrs is hitting more often in Hampshire's 6-2 offense. Sophomore Leigh Anne Libby sets in 3 rotations.
The Whip-Purs (17-1 going into Wednesday's match at Burlington Central) will battle it out with Burlington Central and Harvard for the regular-season title in the Big Northern-East this season. But a year after taking second place in Class 2A, Hampshire has become a program that evaluates itself ultimately by its state tournament success.
The Whip-Purs will open the postseason at the Class 3A Belvidere regional, which also includes Belvidere, Belvidere North and Rockford East. Sectional opponents could include Marian Central and and defending Class 3A champion Crystal Lake Central.
They know the playoff seas will be choppier in 3A, but not one clad in purple is shying away from the opportunity to succeed against bigger schools.
"It's definitely going to be a lot tougher and since this is our first year in 3A, we're not going to know what to expect," Amy Wehrs said. "But I think with our tough practices and our mental focus we'll be prepared for any challenge that comes to us the rest of the way."
Said Kara: "Last year I think we kind of expected we would go downstate. We still had to work for it, but I don't think it was as hard as it could have been for us. We kind of walked through the regionals and sectionals and it started getting harder at the supers.
"This year it's going to be hard right from regionals since we are bumped up. We're preparing right now. I think we have to expect that it's going to be hard."
Nobody ever said it would be easy.
"It is going to be a little harder, yeah, because we are playing bigger schools," Whitehouse said. "But that just means you have to work that much harder."