Mercer Island senior volleyball player Adara Hamilton was a dominant force in a KingCo 3A/2A matchup against the Liberty Patriots on Sept. 27.

Hamilton, who is one of the Islanders top outside hitters, delivered a pulverizing kill on the left side of the court for the final point of the third set, sealing Mercer Island’s 3-0 (25-13, 25-17, 25-14) victory against Liberty. The Islanders improved their overall record to 7-1 with the win while Liberty dropped to 5-4.

Mercer Island head coach Susan Rindlaub was impressed with Hamilton’s performance.

“Adara was amazing tonight,” Rindlaub said. “Her hitting average was really high. She only had one error the whole night in her hitting, which is amazing. She also served really well, her defense was great and she had really good energy the whole time. She had a standout game for sure.”

Rindlaub was glad to see her team get back on track after suffering a 3-2 loss to Eastside Catholic in a non-league contest between Class 3A state tournament contenders on Sept. 22.

“We’ve talked a lot about what we needed to do to get better and how to recover from a loss,” Rindlaub said. “They practiced really hard yesterday (Sept. 26). I think that showed today on the court.”

The Islanders are at the halfway point of their KingCo schedule with an unblemished record of 7-0.

“It’s nice that we’ve made it through now the whole league one time,” Rindlaub said. “Every team is always better the second time we play them. Everyone is practicing hard and getting better. We know we have to get better ourselves to make sure we beat them the second time.”

Team depth is one of the Islanders’ strengths this season.

“One thing that I think works to our advantage is that we don’t just have two go-to-hitters. We have six hitters. We have a lot of weapons and the setters spread the ball around so it makes it hard for other teams to defend,” Rindlaub said.