HutchCC Sports Information
Sophomore outside hitter Page Hiebert broke out of a late-season hitting slump and reached a couple of milestones to lead the Hutchinson Community College Volleyball team to a 3-0 Jayhawk West sweep of the Pratt Beavers on Friday at the Sports Arena.
The Blue Dragons captured their fourth-straight win to improve to 24-11 overall and 13-2 in the Jayhawk West. The Blue Dragons close their home regular season with a 10-2 record. Hutchison will play host to a Region VI Tournament opening-round match on October 31.
The Dragons trail first-place Seward County by one game. Hutch has one more conference match on Oct. 28 at Seward County. The Saints have three league matches remaining.
Hutchinson hit .418 as a team on Friday. It was the first time in 25 matches the Blue Dragons hit better than .400 in a match and it was the third time this season the Blue Dragons hit better than .400. The Dragons out-hit Pratt .418-.012.
The Blue Dragons scored the first 13 and 17 of the first 18 points of the match. Outside of three two-point Pratt leads early in the second set, Hutchinson dominated. The Dragons had five scoring runs in the match of six or more points, including a 7-0 Raychel Reed service run in the third set that broke a 1-1 tie. Hutch closed with a flourish scoring 13 of the match's final 16 points.
Hiebert hit .429 with a match-high 13 kills on 28 swings to lead the Blue Dragons. With her second kill of the match, Hiebert became the fourth Blue Dragon player to reach 500 kills in a season (511). One Hiebert kill later, the sophomore outside hitter from Goessel became the fifth Blue Dragon in history to reach 800 career kills (810).
Sophomore Tatyana Ndekwe had eight kills on .429 hitting. Freshman Leonie Wienkaemper had seven kills on .455 hitting. Sophomore Nina Pevic had seven kills on .417 hitting.
Sophomore setter Katie Jorn finished with 20 assists and posted her seven double-double with 10 digs. Freshman Payton Gawith had 10 assists and five digs. Freshman Cassidy Crites finished with six assists and five kills on 12 swings.
Freshman libero Raychel Reed had 11 team-high digs. Sophomore Kelsey Mulligan had eight.
Naomi Warren had five kills to lead Pratt (7-27, 2-13).
Mulligan served the first 13 points of Hutch's initial 17-1 surge in the opening set. A Crites kill made it 17-1. The Blue Dragons got their only team block on the match when Pevic and Ndekwe doubled up for a stuff to give the Dragons a 19-4 lead. Leading 23-8, kills by Hiebert and Crites closed out the set. Hutch out-hit Pratt .433 to a -.057.
Pratt had three early two-point leads in the second, but an 8-1 run erased those deficits . Lexi Hogan's kill on a joust at the net gave the Dragons a 10-5 lead. Hutch led 16-12 and took charge with a 5-0 run. The final three points of the set were Wienkaemper kills and the Dragons won 25-16. Hutch hit .441 in the second set on 17 kills to Pratt's .259.
Tied 1-1 in the third, Reed's seven-point service run, which included an ace and two Ndekwe kills, gave the Dragons an 8-1 lead. Leading 12-5, three Pevic kills powered a 6-0 run for an 18-5 lead. A Crites kill made it 21-7. Then Hutch scored the final four points, the last two came on Hiebert kills to a 25-8 third-set victory. The Blue Dragons hit.370 with 14 kills in the set. Pratt was held to two kills and a -.190 attack percentage.