Hampshire outlasts Burlington Central in 3 games

The strategy was simple: Keep the ball from hitting the floor at all cost.

The Hampshire girls volleyball team did just that Monday evening, especially in the decisive third game against Burlington Central.

The Whip-Purs dug almost everything, giving the Rockets extra opportunities to make errors. Unfortunately for Central, it accommodated as the Whip-Purs opened Big Northern East play with a 25-20, 17-25, 25-9 victory over the rival Rockets.

"Our defense was phenomenal," Hampshire coach Karen Whitehouse said. "Going into the third goal our goal was to play aggressive, play to win and just let nothing hit."

Tia Incapreo had 19 digs for Hampshire (6-8, 1-0). Leigh-Anna Libby, who also had 19 assists, added 11 digs and Kelly Meathe had seven.

The Rockets (5-10, 0-1) struggled with 8 hitting errors in Game 1. They were much better in the Game 2 win, which included a 15-2 run to turn an 8-5 deficit into a 20-10 lead, only committing 3 errors. But in the final game, they again had 8 errors.

"I'm going to give Hampshire a lot of credit. They were digging a lot of balls," Rockets coach Marv Leavitt said. "Their libero (Incapreo) did a fantastic job.

"We're a team that is very inconsistent offensively. We make a lot of hitting errors."

The Whip-Purs didn't lead in Game 1 until 11-10 and built a 21-14 lead. Alyssa Kissane finished off the game with one of her 7 kills.

Central responded in Game 2, capitalizing on Hampshire miscues. The final 2 points for Central came off serving errors by Hampshire, which had six serving errors in the game.

The Whip-Purs opened a 6-1 lead in the final game and never trailed. Alex Dumoulin had a kill on an over pass and had a block for the final 2 points.

"We were pretty upset they won the second game," said Dumoulin, who had a match-high 8 kills. "We wanted to come out in the third and show them they weren't going to win this without a fight."

Sydney Sand led the Rockets with 4 kills. Kaitlyn O'Reilly had 10 assists. Samantha Bohne added 10 digs.