Marian upends Whips

Host Marian Central served aggressively, and Hampshire's serve-receive collapsed in a Class 3A girls volleyball sectional final in Woodstock Thursday night.

Marian Central took advantage of multiple serve-receive errors by the Whip-Purs and used that momentum to roll to its first sectional title since 1984 with a 25-19, 25-19 victory over last year's Class 2A state runner-up.

It was a satisfying win for the Hurricanes, who lost in sectional finals each of the last two seasons. "We were tired of knocking on the door, so we decided to kick it down." Marian coach Deb Rakers said.

Marian Central (32-6) advanced to Saturday's Grayslake Central supersectional and will face Chicago Walter Payton Prep at 1 p.m. Payton dispatched Trinity 25-17, 25-13.

"Aggressive serving has been one of the key parts of our game," said Marian senior Jordanne LeTourneau, who finished with 4 aces. "I don't think they were ready to come, but we played out of our minds."

Hampshire had received serves well enough all season to keep its potent offense chugging. but the Whip-Purs rarely made a good first pass against Marian even when they did get the ball in the air. That kept setter Kara Wehrs from getting the offensive attack going.

"We let one mistake turn into three, into five, into 10," Kara Wehrs said. "Our serve-receive broke down our whole game. We just couldn't come mentally tough to pick up our serve-receive. Then other things broke down."

In Game 1 alone the unnerved Whips also made 5 unforced hitting errors, were called for 3 lifts and made 3 service errors. But the inability to return serve was the glaring weakness.

"We had no serve-receive," Hampshire coach Karen Whitehouse said. "We could not run an offense tonight. Of all the games it's disappointing that this is the game for our serve-receive to break down, in a sectional title game. We knew we were going to see the jump-float because three of their servers jump float, so we saw it in practice.

"They had a nice crowd. Maybe it was the home court advantage. It's just very uncharacteristic of us to play that way."

Hampshire jumped to a 5-1 lead in Game 1, but the Hurricanes roared back with 7 straight points behind LeTourneau's serve. The Whips managed to pull within 17-15 on a Kara Wehrs tip kill, but 4 unforced errors by the Whips led to a 5-0 Marian run.

Game 2 was tied 2-2 before the Hurricanes exploded for 11 straight points. Senior Kimberlee Bulaga served 9 straight points, a run that included 3 of her 5 aces.

Trailing 20-6, the Whips made it respectable with an 11-1 run of their own, thanks to 2 block kills and a spike by Alex Dumoulin. However, Hampshire's margin of error was gone, and the Hurricanes took the title when Amy Wehrs' spike was ruled out.

The sliver lining for Hampshire? All six starters will return next season.

"We'll learn from it and, hopefully, next year it will be a different outcome," Whitehouse said.