Facing two set points against from going down two sets to preseason Jayhawk West favorite Seward County, the Hutchinson Community College women’s volleyball team rallied to defeat the Saints in four sets in an early pivotal Jayhawk West match on Saturday afternoon at the Sports Arena.
Winning for the first time this season after dropping the opening set, Hutchinson rallied to defeat Seward County 23-25, 26-24, 25-17, 25-17. The Lady Dragons (5-2 overall) are now 3-0 to start the Jayhawk West season. Seward County (4-8) falls to 2-1 in league play. The rematch will be on Oct. 10 in Liberal.
After taking the first set, Seward County led 24-22 after HCC’s 10th service error of the match to that point. Sophomore Jade Nelson’s kill staved off the first set point against. Then, sophomore Kayla Karmazyn came off the bench to deliver two of the biggest kills of the match for Hutchinson. The first knotted the set at 24-all and the second came after a long rally that Karmazyn found the floor with an off-speed attack for a 25-24 lead. Freshman Megan Heier finished off the 4-0 rally to close the set with a kill on a Saints overpass.
Karmazyn came off the bench to deliver four kills, one solo block and one block assist.
Wade led the Lady Dragons with 12 kills on 28 swings and a .243 hitting percentage. Despite being shut out in the first set, Nelson finished with a team-high 10 kills, hitting .231. She added two solo stuff blocks and one block assists.
Sophomore Gabby Rushton hit a .412 with nine kills on 17 attacks. Freshman Megan Heier hit .700 with seven kills on 10 attacks with no errors. Sophomore Shayne Hayley added six kills.
Sophomore setter Scout Heizer had 23 assists, one kill and one service ace. Sophomore setter Ashlyn Westerman had 18 assists, one kill and one service ace.
Wade led three HCC players in double-figure digs with 14, Heizer had 11 and freshman libero Samantha Lackey had 10.
Hutchinson out-hit Seward County 53-31. The Saints had an 8-5 blocking advantage. Both teams had four service aces. The Lady Dragons had a season-high 15 service errors, 10 coming in the first two sets. Seward County had 12 service errors.
Thayna Silva led Seward County with 11 kills. Morgan Riley had eight kills and four total blocks (three solo).
The first set featured 12 ties and four lead changes. The largest lead with Hutchinson at 19-15 after three-straight kills by Wade, two on overpasses, which prompted a Seward County timeout. Middles Bailey McFerren and Riley led the comeback. McFerren had a kill and service ace to tie the set at 19-all. Consecutive kills by Riley gave Seward a 23-22 lead. A Heizer dump for a kill tied the set at 23-all, but HCC’s sixth service error of the set on the next point gave Seward County a set point. Silva finished off the set with a kill for a 25-23 victory.
Hutchinson started the second set on a 5-0 run and led 11-7 after a Lackey service ace and a Seward attack error. Seward County went on a 5-1 run, tying the set at 12-all on a Silva back-row kill. Later, the teams traded service errors to give the Lady Dragons a 21-20 lead, but an Annalise Sanchez kill and Riley stuff block, plus a Hutchinson attack error gave the Saints a 23-21 lead. Ruston terminated on a quick attack to the middle, but another service error gave Seward a 24-22 lead and had HCC at the brink of a 0-2 match deficit. Hutch got off the mat with kills from Nelson, two from Karmazyn and Heier’s finish on an overpass for 4-0 run to tie the match at 1-all.
Hutchinson built an early 7-2 lead to start the third set. The only Saint points came on HCC service errors. But unlike the first two sets, the Lady Dragons didn’t let Seward County get on an extended scoring run to climb back into the set. A Haley kill gave HCC a 15-8 lead. Heier blasted Saint overpass to bump the lead to 19-12. Hutchinson out-hit Seward County 16-6 in the third set.
Leading 4-3 in the fourth, Hutchinson broke things open quickly with an 8-0 run. Nelson had 10 kills, while Heier had a kill and double-block with Karmazyn to build a 12-3 lead. HCC led 17-11 after a Wade kill before Seward ripped off four-straight points to cut the lead to 17-15 and force HCC to call a timeout. On the first point after the timeout, Hutchinson was called for a back-row attack violation, in which HCC coach Patrick Hall argued that Westerman was a front-row player when she contacted the ball at the net. The game officials conferred after Hall pleaded his case and a replay of the point was called. Haley scored with a perfect tip to give HCC an 18-15 lead. Hutchinson finished off the set on a 7-2 run to close out the match.
Hutchinson makes its first conference road trip of the season at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday night at Cloud County. Full coverage of the match will be on the Blue Dragon Sports Network.
MATCH NOTES – The 53 team kills are second most this season. … The combined 41 set assists are third most this season. … Freshman defensive specialist Taylor Karcher scored her first kill of the season. It came on an out-of-system play and it tied the second set at 18-all. … HCC’s five team blocks tied a season low. … Samantha Lackey registered 16-straight passes ranked a 3 (perfect or near-perfect passes to the setter) before delivering a 2. She passed 19 balls and averaged 2.86.
(HCC Sports Information)