[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]
[ HCC SPORTS INFORMATION ]
Photo courtesy of Allie Schweizer, HCC Sports Information
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — The Hutchinson Community College volleyball team won its season-high eighth match in a row and in the process captured a share of its fifth consecutive Jayhawk West championship Wednesday night.
The Blue Dragons had one of their best defensive and passing matches of the season in a 25-23, 25-14, 25-20 victory over the Trojans on Wednesday at the Sports Arena.
Now 23-11 for the season, the Blue Dragons won a share of their fifth-straight Jayhawk West championship with a 14-2 conference record. Hutchinson can win the conference outright if Colby defeats Seward County on Saturday in Liberal. The conference crown is the 10th in program history, all coming since 2004.
Hutchinson also clinches the No. 1 seed for the Region VI Tournament, which will be played at the Sports Arena. Hutchinson will play either Garden City or Pratt in an opening-round match at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday and then be the host school for the Region VI semifinals and championship match on Sunday, November 6 at the Sports Arena.
Trailing 10-6 in the opening set, the Blue Dragons set the tone with a rally that lasted 16 total possessions. Patricia Joseph had three incredible saves on Colby blocks. Mine Cetinoz and Katie Jorn both had sprawling saves to keep the ball alive and the Dragons ultimately won the rally with a Page Hiebert kill. That sparked an 8-2 run that turned the set around.
Hiebert led the Blue Dragons with 10 kills on 31 swings on .194 hitting to lead the Blue Dragons.
Hinalei Fihaki hit a match-high .571 with eight kills on 14 attacks with no errors. Fihaki added two blocks and an ace serve.
Nadine Cruz hit .385 with six kills and two blocks. Nina Pevic had six kills on .294 hitting. Shania Werner finished strong after a slow start with five kills.
Jorn and Nicole Rutherford both had 17 assists. Cetinoz had a team-high 17 digs. Kelsey Mulligan had 13 digs.
Aleksandra Malik had 10 kills to lead Colby (23-8, 12-3).
Hutch out-hit Colby 39-31 and out-blocked the Trojans 5-4.
Colby led the opening set 12-9 when Fihaki’s kill started a 6-1 Dragon run. Back-to-back Colby ball-handling errors tied the set and gave Hutch a 13-12 lead. Two more Colby errors gave the dragons a 15-13 lead. A 4-1 run gave Colby a 17-16 lead after a Singryd Valdarama kill. Hutch tied the set at 17 after another long rally was terminated by a Cetinoz kill. A kill and subsequent ace by Malik then gave Colby a 20-19 lead – there were four lead changes and 12 ties in the first set – a Cruz kill knotted the set again at 20 and sparked a set-clinching 6-1 run. Leading 23-21, Fihaki had a kill and solo block to finish off the Dragon win.
Tied at 7-all in the second set, Hutch scored four unanswered points and extended that run to 6-1 after a Rutherford setter dump dropped for a kill and a 13-8 Hutch team to force a Colby timeout. With Hutch leading 15-9, Colby trimmed the Dragon lead in half with a three-point run. The Dragons then exploded when a Werner kill started a 10-2 run to finish off the second set.
The Dragons jumped out to a quick 7-2 run in the third set, but Colby closed to within 9-8 after a Malik kill. Leading 14-12, the Dragons took advantage of three-straight Colby errors to lead 17-12 and force Colby to take a timeout. From that point, the closest Colby got was three points at 21-18.