Hutchinson CC Sports Information
EL DORADO – The Hutchinson Community College volleyball team received a wake-up call just in time and after Day 1 of the Butler Invitational was complete, the Blue Dragons were 2-0.
The Blue Dragons trailed Division II, No. 18 Neosho County 2-1, but rallied to win the fourth and fifth sets to upend the Panthers 25-17, 18-25, 16-25, 25-17, 15-6 to open the tournament on Friday at the Power Plant. Hutchinson then rolled by Rose State 25-12, 25-18, 25-19 in the second match on Friday.
The Blue Dragons improve to 7-3 overall. Hutchinson will have only one match on Saturday, Trinity Valley at 11 a.m. The scheduled final match with NEO was cancelled.
NEOSHO COUNTY RECAP
The Blue Dragons improved to 3-0 this season in five-set matches, but for the first time had to rally from a set down after three sets.
The Dragons dominated the first set after it was tied at 15-all. The Dragons won 10 of the final 12 rallies to earn the win, but sets 2 and 3 were all Neosho County. Hutch had a slim 9-8 lead in the fourth set and the Blue Dragon offense came to life with a 7-2 run to force a Panther timeout at 16-10. Hutch cruised from that point to force a fifth set.
The Blue Dragons opened the fifth set with a 5-1 lead after a Melina Christodoulou kill. The cushion grew to 10-3 after kills from Blondie Penaflor and Kristina Head and a Panther attack error. Head had kills on Hutch's final two points to close out the fifth set, 15-6.
Penaflor finished with a match-high 15 kills. Head had 12 kills and Morgan Harvey finished with nine.
Setter Andrea Serrano had a season-high 38 assists and McKinley Johnson added 14.
Libero Shelby Reeder had 20 digs in the match to surpass 550 career digs. Zoe Schmidt finished with a season-high 18 digs and Sophie Connor had 10.
Head had two of Hutchinson's six service aces.
ROSE STATE RECAP
The Blue Dragons then posted their third sweep of the season in a 3-0 win over Rose State later on Friday.
Penaflor against led the Dragons with eight kills. Head had seven kills and seven total blocks, including a solo stuff. Harvey had five kills and three total blocks.
Serrano had 22 assists and McKinley had 11. Reeder had a team-high 10 assists.
After dominating the first set, the Dragons trailed the second set 11-5. The Dragons responded out of a timeout with a 10-0 run. That run great to 14-4 with a Serrano ace that made it 19-15. Back-to-back Baylee Miller aces made it 22-16 and a Tauja Durham kill closed out the set with a kill.