Hutchinson CC Sports Information
The Hutchinson Community College volleyball team entered Wednesday's Jayhawk West match with Garden City at the Sports Arena on a three-match and nine-set losing streak.
After just six rallies against the Broncbusters, the Blue Dragons trailed by four points and a less-than-thrilled Hutchinson head coach Delice Downing burned an early timeout. Downing's message was received as the Blue Dragons scored on 6 of the next 8 rallies, which sparked a sweep of Garden City.
Hutchinson snapped its skid with a 25-23, 25-19, 25-17 victory over the Busters. The Blue Dragons improved to 5-3 overall and 2-1 in the Jayhawk West. The Blue Dragons will play three matches this weekend in the Butler Tournament in El Dorado against Neosho County, Rose State and Trinity Valley. The Dragons' fourth scheduled match against NEO was cancelled.
Freshman Blondie Penaflor led the Blue Dragons with a match-high 12 kills with .259 hitting on 27 total attacks. Penaflor had five kills in the first set.
The Blue Dragons had four players with six or more kills in the match. Hutchinson out-hit Garden City .190-.019 with 40 total kills to the Busters' 25.
Sophomore Kristina Head had nine kills on .133 hitting. She also had a season-high eight digs.
Freshman Morgan Harvey finished with seven kills on .312 hitting. Harvey also had seven digs.
Freshman Cameron Letcher posted a season-high six kills on .357 hitting. Letcher had four kills on six attacks in the second set.
Freshman setter Andrea Serrano finished with 22 assists and nine digs. Freshman setter McKinley Johnson had 13 assists and three digs.
Starting at libero for the first time this season, sophomore Zoe Schmidt had a team-high 13 digs.
The Blue Dragons out-blocked Garden City 4-0.
Garden City (5-10, 1-1) was led by Giorgia Cappeletti and Vanja Stefanovic with eight kills each.
SET 1: After that quick Dragon timeout, Chloe Conway's kill started a 7-2 Dragon run that was capped by a Penaflor kill that gave the Dragons an 8-7 lead. Hutchinson's lead ultimately grew to six points at 16-10, but Garden City scored on 9 of the next 12 rallies and knotted the set at 19-all. Each team then traded four-straight two-point runs. Garden City tied the set at 23 on a Stefanovic ace. Stefanovic sent the next serve long and Penaflor's fifth kill of the set closed out a 25-23 Blue Dragon win, snapping a nine-set losing streak dating back the first set last Saturday at McCook. Hutchinson hit .176 in the set and held Garden City to .000 hitting (8 kills, 8 attack errors).
SET 2: The Blue Dragons hit .158 in the second set, but sided out at a 78-percent clip to keep the Busters at arm's length. Letcher had a big second set to lead Hutchinson. Her first kill gave the Dragons an 8-4 lead. That cushion slowly dissipated and Garden City took a 15-14 lead after back-to-back Hutch attack errors. The Dragons answered with kills from Penaflor, Melina Christodoulou and Harvey with a Johnson service ace mixed in for an 18-16 lead. Back-to-back Letcher kills upped the Dragon lead to 21-17. At 22-19, the Busters misfired on a pair of attacks and Harvey terminated on an overpass to give the Dragons a 25-19 set victory. Hutch held Garden City to .029 hitting.
SET 3: The Blue Dragons had a 6-4 lead and took control with a 7-1 run that was powered by a Head back-row kill and service ace and two Penaflor kills to build a 13-5 lead. A Conway kill boosted the Hutchinson lead to 18-9. The Busters pulled within 20-14. The teams then traded points from that point. Letcher closed out the match with a kill to the deep right corner. Hutchinson had a match-high 16 kills on .227 hitting in the third set. Garden City hit .027.