HCC Sports Information
Wednesday, October 14, 2015
GARDEN CITY – The No. 20-ranked Hutchinson Community College volleyball team completed a three-week, eight-match road trip on Wednesday night with a decisive 3-0 Jayhawk West victory over Garden City at the Perryman Athletic Complex.
For the second-straight match, the Blue Dragons had more than 10 service aces to keep Garden City generally out of system in a 25-22, 25-11, 25-10 victory.
Hutchinson improves to 21-6 overall and 10-1 in the Jayhawk West. The Blue Dragons maintain sole possession of first place in the conference. Garden City falls to 4-28 overall and 2-10 in the league.
Since HCC last played at the Sports Arena on Sept. 26, the Blue Dragons have traveled 2,042 miles to Colby, Liberal, West Plains, Mo., and Garden City. HCC went 5-3 on the long road trip, but close it out in impressive fashion.
After a tougher-than-expected opening set, the Blue Dragons outscored Garden City 50-21 in the final two sets, closing out the match on a 12-1 run.
After a season-high 14 aces against Miami-Date on Saturday, Hutchinson chalked up 12 aces against the Busters. Sophomores Maddi Cumpston, AubreyWilson and Jai Chapman had three aces each. Tarynn Stueder added two aces.
The Blue Dragons out-hit Garden City 42-25. The Busters had 14 of those kills in the opening set. HCC tallied five team blocks to Garden City’s two.
The Dragons had a balance attack with several players posting high hitting percentages.
Sophomore middle Petra Silic hit .571 with eight kills and no errors on 14 swings. She added two solo blocks and two block assists.
Wilson finished with eight kills on .467 hitting. She had a block assist and 17 set assists. Chapman had seven kills.
The Dragons got six kills each from Johanna Voss, Marija Martinovic and Katarina Nicic. Martinovic was a perfect 6 for 6 hitting. Voss hit .667 on nine attacks. Nicic hit .625 on eight swings.
Stueder posted a double-double with 22 assists and 10 digs. McKenzie Steele also had 10 digs.
The Blue Dragons scored the first six points of the match on kills and two Cumpston aces. The lead was still 9-4 on a Wilson ace and 12-6 on a Steele ace. After a Buster attack error, Garden City took a timeout trailing Hutchinson 16-8. The Busters came out of the timeout and went on a 7-1 run to pull within 17-15. A Dragon service error sliced the HCC margin to 21-20, but back-to-back kills from Silic and Wilson helped the Dragons regain control. Silic’s kill on set point gave HCC a 25-22 win.
The second set started tight with HCC leading 7-5, but the Blue Dragons reeled off seven unanswered points to lead 14-5 after a Johanna Voss kill. The Dragons started to dominate the match at that point. A Nicic kill gave Hutch its first 10-point lead in the set at 18-8. HCC closed the set on a 4-1 run to win it 25-11.
A couple of Chapman kills and a Wilson ace gave Hutchinson an early 9-3 lead in the third set. The lead grew to 12-4 on a double block by Voss and Martinovic, but the Busters bounced back with a 5-1 run to cut the lead to 13-9. A Silic kill ended that run and started a streak of 10-straight points that pulled HCC to match point. Silic had kills on the final two points of the set lift HCC to a 25-10 victory.
The Blue Dragons finally return home at 2 p.m. on Saturday to take on a surging Cloud County team at the Sports Arena.