Dragon volleyball drops second match in a row

[ By STEVE CARPENTER ]

[ BLUE DRAGON SPORTS INFORMATION ]

HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Despite a career night from sophomore Elena Takova, the Hutchinson Community College volleyball team’s inconsistent passing doomed the Blue Dragons in a four-set Jayhawk West loss to Colby on Monday night at the Sports Arena.

The Blue Dragons won the first set, but Colby took advantage of Hutch’s passing issues late in the final three sets to snap a nine-match losing streak to the Dragons in the Arena with a 24-26, 25-20, 26-24, 25-20 victory.

Hutchinson falls to 12-10 overall and 7-4 in the Jayhawk West heading into Wednesday’s road match at Garden City. Colby is now 20-1 overall, 10-1 in the Jayhawk West. The Trojans sweep the season series with Hutchinson for the first time since 2011, which was the last time the Trojans defeated the Blue Dragons at the Arena.

Takova had 25 kills and only four attack errors on 64 swings to hit .328 on Monday night in leading the Blue Dragons. Takova’s 25 kills ties Dragana Micic for sixth most in Blue Dragon single-match history. Her 25 kills also tie Micic for the second most in a four-set match in Hutchinson volleyball history. Takova had 20 kills through three sets.

The Blue Dragons were out-hit .188-.168, but total kills were tied at 56. The Trojans out-blocked the Dragons 8-6, but Hutch had 103 digs in the match to Colby’s 92. The 103 digs tied for fifth most in a four-set match in HutchCC history.

The big difference was that Colby had 10 service aces to none for the Dragons, which is the first time in 2018 the Dragons didn’t record a service ace.

Sophomore Cassidy Crites had her ninth double-double of the season with 27 assists and a career-high 22 digs. She also added four kills and two block assists.

Freshman Delilah Vigil had 10 kills on .304 hitting with five digs and four block assists. Eden Hiebert and Lexi Hogan had six kills each.

Sophomore libero Raychel Reed had 26 digs to jump both Erika Godbolt (2003-04) and Sarah Claborn (2006-07) into fifth place on the Blue Dragon career digs list with 935 career digs. In addition to Reed and Crites, Claira Creach and Hiebert were also in double figures in digs with 15 and 11, respectively.