Hutchinson CC Sports Information

The Hutchinson Community College Volleyball snapped a four-match losing streak to open the Blue Dragon Volleyball Classic on Friday at the Sports Arena.

The Blue Dragons, in the process, had their slumbering offense come back to life with .280 hitting in a 25-20, 25-21, 25-13 victory over the Trinity Valley Cardinals in their opening match of the tournament.

Hutchinson avenged a four-set loss to Trinity Valley just six days earlier at the Butler Invitational in El Dorado. The Blue Dragons improved to 8-6 overall. Later on Friday, Trinity Valley knocked off No. 8 Missouri State-West Plains in four sets.

The Blue Dragons snapped a five-match streak hitting less than .200 as a team was a 42-kill performance and only 18 attack errors.

Freshman Blondie Penaflor led the resurgent Hutchinson offense with 10 kills and two total blocks. Freshman Sophie Connor and sophomore Zoe Schmidt had nine kills each. Connor also had 10 digs. Freshman Morgan Harvey had six kills and sophomore Kristina Head had five kills.

Setter Andrea Serrano tallied 37 assists.

Freshman libero Amanda Velez had a give match with 15 digs and a season-high five service aces. Hutchinson had eight aces for the patch.

SET 1: Connor had a big opening set for Hutchinson with six kills, while Penaflor and Head had three each. Head executed a slide for a kill and an early 7-2 lead. The Cardinals got back to 9-8 with four unanswered points and later tied the set at 15-all. The Dragons answered with a 4-0 run that included a kill by Schmidt, service ace by Head and a Schmidt/Connor double block to lead 19-15. Leading 19-17, the Dragons surged again with two Connor kills in a 3-0 run for a 22-19 lead. Harvey got the kill on set point for a 25-20 win.

SET 2: Trailing 12-11, a Connor kills sparked a 7-1 Dragon run that also included two Velez aces. Her second ace of the set gave the Dragons an 18-13 lead. Trinity Valley again tried to come back and got within 19-16. A Penaflor kill, Rachel Easom ace and Head kill on a Cardinals over-pass bumped the lead back to six at 22-16. Trinity Valley scored on 5 of the final 8 rallies, but the Dragons closed out the set with a Schmidt kill for a 25-21 win and a 2-0 match lead. Penaflor had five kills and Schmidt had four kills in the set.

SET 3: The Dragons led 9-5, but Trinity Valley ran four unanswered points to knot the set. The set belonged to Hutchinson after that. A Penaflor-Schmidt double block capped a 4-0 run for a 13-9 lead. Back-to-back Velez aces made it 17-10. Harvey served up an ace for a 19-11 lead and Connor terminated again for a 22-13 lead. The match ended on a Cardinal attack error.