Hutchinson CC Sports Information
Seemingly in control through the first two sets, the Hutchinson Community College volleyball team had a hard time finishing off the Cloud County Thunderbirds in the 2021 Jayhawk West opener on Wednesday at the Sports Arena.
Cloud County dominated the third and fourth sets to even the match. Tied an 8-all in the fifth, the Blue Dragons scored on 7 of the final 10 rallies to defeat the Thunderbirds 25-17, 25-15, 19-25, 15-25, 15-11.
The Blue Dragons improved to 2-0 overall and 1-0 in the Jayhawk West. Cloud County is now 6-4 overall and 0-2 in league play. Hutchinson will play four matches this weekend in the McCook Tournament in McCook, Nebraska.
Sophomore middle Kristina Head had a career-high 17 kills on .238 hitting to lead the Blue Dragons, who hit .253 in the three sets they won and .106 in the two sets they lost. Head had four kills in the decisive fifth set.
Freshman Blondie Penaflor was the only other Blue Dragon in double figure kills with 13 on .250 hitting. Freshman Chloe Conway had eight kills.
The Blue Dragons served tough with 13 services aces and only seven service errors. Head just missed her career high for aces with five in the match. Sophomore libero Shelby Reeder had three aces. Five different Hutchinson players recorded aces.
Freshman setter McKinley Johnson, running a 5-1 system with the injury to fellow freshman starter Andrea Serrano, posted a season-high 49 assists with seven digs and two kills.
Reeder finished with a team-high 15 digs to lead the Blue Dragons. Zoe Schmidt had 11 digs and Morgan Harvey had 10, including a key diving dig late in the fifth set.
The Blue Dragons out-hit Cloud County .155-.153, but were out-blocked 7.0-5.5. Cloud County had a 68-67 dig advantage, but the Dragons had 13 aces to Cloud County's eight.
Holly Stewart had 13 kills and Natasha Dooley had 10 kills to lead Cloud County.
SET 1: The Blue Dragons had five service aces and out-hit Cloud County .184-.111 in the opening set. Still the Thunderbirds led 6-3 before the Dragons finally shook off the rust of a nine-day hiatus since their last match. Back-to-back Head services aces gave the Dragons a 10-9 lead. A Conway kill upped the lead to 14-10. Leading 17-13, the Blue Dragons reeled off six-straight points. Kills from Penaflor, Head and Tauja Durham, a Harvey ace and two Cloud attack errors boosted the Dragon lead to 23-13. Cloud scored four of the next five points, but Head closed out the set with a kill. Head had five kills in the opening set.
SET 2: The second set had long scoring runs by each team. The Dragons opened the set with a 7-1 run, only to see the Thunderbirds counter with a 5-1 run to pull within 8-6. Hutchinson answered back with five straight, getting a Penaflor kill for a 13-6 lead. A Penaflor kill, Harvey ace and T-Bird attack error pushed the Dragon cushion to 10 at 18-8. Cloud had two three-point runs after that, but the Dragons ended a decisive second set with a Sophie Connor kill. The Dragons hit .219 and held Cloud County to .000 hitting on 32 attacks.
SET 3: Cloud County showed some resiliency and the Blue Dragons started to struggle with passing and ball control. The Thunderbirds built early leads of 6-2, 11-6, 15-8 and 20-12. Cloud County hit .250 in the third set to Hutchinson's .100 hitting. Down 23-14, the Blue Dragons made a late rally with a 5-1 run. Head had kills at 23-17 and 24-18, but Cloud's Geralyn Palacios finished off the set with a kill and a 25-19 set victory.
SET 4: The Blue Dragons struggled mightily in the fourth set, hitting a minus-.115 (5 kills, 8 errors, 26 attacks). Cloud County hit .261. The Dragons led 5-4, but Dooley caught fire for Cloud with three kills in a 6-0 run that gave the Thunderbirds a 10-5 lead. A Johnson ace serve pulled the Dragons within 11-9, but Cloud took charge with an 8-1 run for a 19-10 lead. Penaflor stopped that run with a kill. She added a double block with head, another kill and back-to-back Reeder aces to pull within 19-15, but Cloud County scored the final six points of the set to push the match to a fifth set.
SET 5: The Dragons only trailed once in the final set and led 8-6 after a Head kill. Cloud County scored two straight to tie the set at 8-all and prompted a Blue Dragon timeout. Tied at 9-all, a Head kill gave the Dragons the lead for good and sparked a 7-3 match-clinching run. The key point of that run came at 10-9. Harvey made a sprawling dig of a Palacios attack near the sideline. Milena Christodoulou wound up with a kill after the Harvey dig and gave the Dragons a two-point lead. Johnson then dropped a setter dump for a 12-9 lead. Cloud scored two straight to pull within 12-11, but the Dragons finished off the match with kills from Conway and Penaflor and Cloud was called for a ball-handling error on match point. The Blue Dragons out-hit Cloud County .400-.174 in the final set.