Hutchinson CC Sports Information

COLBY – The Hutchinson Community College volleyball team turned in a superb defensive effort, but the Blue Dragon offense struggled in a four-set Jayhawk West loss to the Colby Trojans on Monday night.

The Blue Dragons lost to Colby 20-25, 17-25, 25-16, 18-25 in a match filled with long rallies. The Dragons weren't able to finish many of those rallies after hitting .037 for the match.

Hutchinson drops to 7-5 overall and 2-2 in the Jayhawk West. Colby improved to 9-7 overall and is 2-2 in league play. The Blue Dragons play host to Dodge City at 6 p.m. on Wednesday at the Sports Arena.

The offense came to life in the third set for Hutchinson. After hitting just .083 in the first two sets, including a negative .406 in the second set, freshman Blondie Penaflor hit .333 in a decisive third-set victory. But the offense sputtered again down the stretch as Colby scored on 7 of the match's final 8 rallies to seal the victory.

Sophomore Kristina Head led Hutchinson's stellar back-row performance with a career-high 15 digs. Freshman Andrea Serrano had 12 digs and sophomore Shelby Reeder had 11 digs. The Dragons had 52 total digs in the match.

Penaflor had six of her team-high nine kills in the third set. Penaflor also had four total blocks (1 solo, 3 assists).

Head had seven kills and freshman Aubreigh Haxton had six kills. Freshman Sophie Connor finished with five kills.

The Blue Dragons had 38 kills and 35 total attack errors.

Serrano finished with 17 assists and McKinley Johnson had 13 assists and a service ace

Maelie Chupin had a match-high 14 kills to lead Colby.