By Steve Carpenter
Hutchinson CC Sports Information Director

The Hutchinson Community College volleyball team will open the 2021 regular season on Monday night against the Ottawa University Junior Varsity at 6 p.m. at the Sports Arena.

Head coach Delice Downing begins her second season with the Blue Dragons with only two returning players back from an 18-10 opening season at Hutchinson.

What's nice for Downing is that both returning players were All-Jayhawk West selections from last season.

Libero Shelby Reeder, a 5-foot-7 libero from Derby (Circle High School) had an exceptional season in earning second-team all-league honors. Reeder posted the 10th-most digs in a season with 542 last season. Her mark of 4.80 digs per set was the fourth-highest in Hutchinson single-season history. Reeder's 35 digs against Garden City on March 5 were the second most in Hutchinson single-match history.

Middle blocker Kristina Head, a 6-foot versatile hitter from Lyons, took the league by storm. Head was third in the Jayhawk West with 1.04 blocks per set. She finished the season with 2.49 kills per set and a .305 hitting percentage. Over her last 10 matches of the 2020-21 season, Head hit .358 and averaged 3.44 kills per set. Head broke a Blue Dragon single-match record for total blocks with 15 against Seward County.

Reeder and Head are Downing's easy decisions. Now, Downing must figure out how to build the rest of the rotation around with three transfers and 12 true freshmen.

Among the top decisions is who takes over at setter after the graduation of all-conference performer Chloe Price (now at Arkansas Fort-Smith). Whoever earns the job, Downing will have a freshman quarterbacking the Blue Dragons this season with Andrea Serrano (5-6, Arecibo, Puerto Rico) or McKinley Johnson (5-7, Lindsborg, Kansas). Johnson has seen action on the Sports Arena court as a member of the state-tournament-qualifying Smoky Valley High School volleyball team in 2020.

The three transfers into the Blue Dragon program this season are outside hitter Tauja Durham, back-row player Rachel Easom and back-row/middle Zoe Schmidt.

At Garden City last season, the 5-10 Durham averaged 2.51 kills and 0.45 blocks while hitting .082 in 27 matches last season. She had matches of 13 and 14 kills against Hutchinson last season. Easom (5-4, Houston, Texas) saw limited playing time in nine matches (13 sets) at Coffeyville last season where she averaged both 0.31 digs and 0.31 service aces per set. Schmidt (5-8, Springdale, Arkansas) redshirted at Coffeyville last season.

As far as two freshmen to keep an eye on, Emmanuela Christodoulou and Blondie Penaflor are on that list. Christodoulou (6-0, Eretria, Greece) is an outside hitter with a lot of power. Penaflor (6-0, Las Vegas, Nevada) is a middle/right-side hitter with a big arm and a strong block.

During the Blue Dragon scrimmage against McPherson, Sterling and Bethel College last Monday at the Sports Arena, 5-11 middle blocker Cameron Letcher (Kansas City, Kansas – Piper High School), 5-8 right-side Morgan Harvey (Hoyt, Kansas) and outside hitters Sophie Connor (6-0, Derby, Kansas) and Baylee Miller (5-11, Maize) had strong showings.

Harvey won a Class 3A state championship on the Sports Arena floor at Royal Valley High School in 2019.

The 2021 Blue Dragons will look to improve upon the numbers of 11.10 kills per set and .242 overall team hitting. Last season, Hutchinson also averaged 2.36 blocks, 1.72 services aces and 15.24 digs per set. The Blue Dragons tied for third last season with a 10-6 league mark and advanced to the Region VI Tournament semifinal round for the 11th-straight season and for the 19th time in the last 20 seasons.

After Monday, Hutchinson's next match will be September 1 when the Cloud County Thunderbirds come to the Sports Arena to open Jayhawk West play.