Hutchinson CC Sports information
Freshman Blondie Penaflor led three Blue Dragons in double-figure kills and hit better than .400 in her collegiate debut to lead the Hutchinson Community College women's volleyball team to a 3-1 season-opening victory over the Ottawa University Junior Varsity on Monday night at the Sports Arena.
Hutchinson won its first since opener since 2018. The Blue Dragons now have nine days off before opening Jayhawk West play against Cloud County on Wednesday, September 1 at the Sports Arena.
Penaflor finished with 14 kills on 23 swings and hit a match-high .435 to lead the Blue Dragons. Penaflor had only two kills in the opening set, but sparked the Blue Dragons with five kills on eight attacks in the second set. After getting only three swings in the third set, Peneflor terminated five kills on six attacks in a dominant Hutchinson fourth set.
The Blue Dragons out-hit the Braves .206-.080. Hutchinson held Ottawa to .002 hitting in sets 1, 2 and 4. Ottawa hit .229 in and held the Dragons to .049 hitting in the third set, the only set the Blue Dragons lost.
Sophomores Tauja Durham and Kristina Head had 10 kills each for the Blue Dragons. Head hit .182 and Durham hit .118. Freshman Sophie Connor had nine kills on .261 hitting with a match-high 15 digs. Freshman Morgan Harvey finished with seven kills. Freshman Cameron Letcher had five kills and a team-high four total blocks.
Andrea Serrano finished with 26 assists and seven digs. McKinley Johnson had 19 assists and eight digs. Zoe Schmidt finished with 12 digs and Amanda Velez had 10 digs.
The Blue Dragons out-blocked Ottawa 6-3 and out-dug the Braves 61-49.
Darby Weidl led the Braves with 13 kills on 39 attacks on .179 hitting.
SET 1: Opening Night got off to a slow start for the Blue Dragons, trailing 4-1 and 8-5. A Harvey kill started a 5-0 run. The Dragons took their first lead at 9-8 on a Head kill and Connor added a service ace for a two-point lead. Trailing 17-16, kills by Head and Harvey and an Ottawa attack error gave the Dragons a 19-17 lead. The set was then tied at 20-all and Hutch scored three straight and led 23-20 after a Harvey kill. After an Ottawa timeout, the Braves scored on 3 of the next four rallies to pull within 24-23, but handed the Dragons the first set with a service error. The Dragons out-hit Ottawa .106-.054 in the first set.
SET 2: The Blue Dragons ramped up the offense to .393 hitting with 17 kills on 28 attacks. Penaflor led a balanced offense with five kills. The Dragons held Ottawa to .000 hitting (6 kills, 6 errors, 23 attacks). The Dragons scored the first six points of the set only to see the Braves score the next five points. The Dragons stopped that advance with back-to-back Peneflor kills for an 8-5 lead. Leading 14-12, the Blue Dragons got two kills each from Penaflor and Durham to build a 20-14 lead. The Dragons finished off the set with a Letcher kill to win 25-18 and take a 2-0 match lead.
SET 3: Hutchinson was out-hit .229-.049 in the third set. The Dragons didn't help their own cause with nine attack error, three service errors and a ball-handling error. The Dragons led 8-5, but Weidl had three kills in a 5-0 Brave run to take a 10-8 lead. The Dragons battled back to take leads at 16-15 and 17-16. The Dragons then became mistake-prone as Ottawa scored on 9 of the final 10 rallies to pull away. Weidl had seven kills and hit .538 in the third set to lead the Braves.
SET 4: The Dragons were in control from the outset of the fourth set, out-hitting the Braves .440-.000. Penaflor, Connor and Durham combined for 12 kills on a combined .500 hitting between the three players. A Velez service ace gave the Dragons an early 8-2 lead, but the Braves were able to pull within two points at 16-14. Penaflor hammered home a kill to start a match-clinching 9-2 Dragon run.