[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]
[ HCC SPORTS INFORMATION ]
Photo courtesy of Joel Powers, HCC Sports Information
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson Community College volleyball team used aggressive serving and balanced offensive attack to earn huge Jayhawk West victory over the Barton Cougars on Wednesday Night at the Sports Arena.
On the strength of six service aces and several more served that took the Cougars out of system plenty in the first two sets, the Blue Dragons swept Barton 25-14, 25-12, 25-21, Hutch’s fifth-straight victory.
The Blue Dragons reach the 20-win plateau for the fifth-straight season and 29th time in 43 seasons of volleyball. Hutchinson is now 20-11 overall, but more importantly 11-2 in the Jayhawk West. The Blue Dragons are tied with Colby for second place, one-half game behind Seward County with three matches remaining.
The Blue Dragons and Barton split the season series. Barton swept Hutchinson on Sept. 17 in Great Bend.
Hutchinson travels to Butler for at 6:30 p.m. match on Friday at Circle High School in Towanda. The match was originally set for Saturday in El Dorado, but flooding issues at the Power Plant forced the match to be moved to Towanda.
Freshman setter Nicole Rutherford tied a season high with three service aces to go with a team-high 21 assists and a key dump for a kill during an initial 9-2 run in the second set.
Freshman Katie Jorn, sophomore Mine Cetinoz and freshman Kelsey Mulligan all had aces.
Freshman Page Hiebert didn’t connect on her first five attacks, but wound up with a team-high nine kills on 25 swings and a .320 hitting percentage. Hiebert also had three block assists.
Freshman Nadine Cruz had eight kills, but hit .240. Freshman Shania Werner was a spark off the bench with seven kills on .389 hitting with now errors on 18 attacks. Freshman Nina Pevic had six kills.
Blue Dragon outside and right-side hitters had just one attack error in the first two sets.
The Blue Dragons had six total blocks led by sophomore Hinalei Fihaki with six block assists.
Cetinoz and Mulligan had 17 digs each.
Monique Oliveria had seven kills to lead the Cougars (22-8, 9-5). Olivia Naccarato had four kills and four blocks.