Josh DeLuca is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Hamilton for AZPreps365.com

The Hamilton Girls Volleyball team (12-12) won in three straight sets against the Basha Bears (8-9) at home Thursday night. The Huskies dominated against the Bears winning all three sets handedly, 25-19, 25-15, 25-12.

This was Hamilton's first regional game of the season bringing them to a 1-0 record in the 6A- Premier Region, a region in which they finished third in last season.

The two teams kept it close the first set with the Huskies leading 21-19 before the Huskies went on a run to score four unanswered points including an ace serve to win the set from Junior Evonna Martin 25-19.

Hamilton found its rhythm in the second set, starting to pull away from Basha and going up 20-13. The Huskies finished out the set even stronger with 5 unanswered kills behind its senior captions on the team. Ava Anderson, middle hitter, and Raegan Richardson, outside hitter.

Hamilton kept that momentum going into the third set with a kill from Richardson on the first point that set the tone for the entire set. Hamilton continued applying the pressure going up 22-9 and not slowing down despite the lead to win the set 25-12 and win the match.

Richardson led Hamilton with an amazing offensive performance leading the team in kills along with a great defensive performance on the line to get the bench and the crowd excited. 

Hamilton was coming off of three straight losses to Corona del Sol, Xavier College Prep, and Sunny Slope. However the team remained motivated to continue to fight through their coach, Coach Vanis. 

“Coach reminds us everyday it's not how you start it's how you finish, and we feel that we are growing stronger every game," Richardson said. 

“She’s been teaching us to bond together and figure out our differences and different dynamics.” Andersson said. “We’re having a lot more fun now and finding each other's strengths and weaknesses and balancing each other out.” 

Vanis was happy with her team's ability to stay focused the entire game and not take their foot off the gas despite what the lead was. Vanis believes in her team and expressed her excitement for the rest of the season and what the Huskies are capable of accomplishing together as a team. 

“This is the push at the end of the season, this is when you want to be playing your best volleyball and we’re close to that,” Vanis said. 

Richardson and Anderson are excited to be the leaders to the younger generation on the team so the Huskies can continue its success not only this season but also leaving a lasting impact in the future.

“We’re considered a younger team, we have a lot of freshmen and sophomores and it's our job to help the team mesh together,” Richardson said.

Hamilton (12-11, 1-0) has a one week break before they travel to Perry (15-8, 1-1) and Chandler (0-13) (0-1) on Tuesday and Wednesday October 8th and 9th at 6:00 p.m. for two regional matchups.