Playing at the Sports Arena for the final time, sophomores Jordan Rehm and Cassie Wiley bid adieu to the home of Hutchinson Community College volleyball in grand fashion on Tuesday night.
Rehm and Wiley, the only sophomores on the team, combined for 16 kills to power the Lady Dragons to a 3-0 sweep of Dodge City in the opening round of the Region VI Volleyball Tournament. HCC defeated Dodge City for the second time in six days, downing the Conquistadors 25-14, 25-11, 27-25.
Fourth-seeded Hutchinson (16-21) advances to the Region VI Final Four on Saturday and Sunday in Wichita. Rehm had nine kills, one block and one service ace in her final Sports Arena performance. Wiley added seven kills and four blocks in her Arena finale.
“It was a very good night,” Rehm said. “We were very confidence. We rolled with it and came out with a big win. Intensity-wise we were able to keep the momentum on our side.”
“We all brought our A game tonight,” Wiley said. “We’ve been waiting for that.”
Once again, the Lady Dragons had a very balanced attack with freshman setter Hayley Young posting 33 assists.
Freshman Jade Nelson had seven kills and two blocks. Freshman Shayne Haley had five kills and three blocks. Freshman Emily Oberlin had four kills. Freshman libero Paige Forrester had a match-high 17 digs.
HCC had 38 kills, seven blocks and five service aces.
“We played really well,” HCC head coach Sarah Myers said. “We played really well this past weekend and showed some strong spurts. We wanted to carry that over to tonight.
“Qualifying for the Wichita part of this tournament is a big accomplishment for this team.”
Chantal Birbaum had eight kills and eight service aces to lead Dodge City (17-18). The Conquistadors had 16 kills, three blocks and nine service aces.
Six days ago, Hutchinson defeated Dodge City in five sets at the Sports Arena to earn the first-round home match. For 2 ½ sets, the Lady Dragons were dominant in all phases in scoring 74 of the match’s first 110 points.
Leading 10-9 in the first set, back-to-back kills by Wiley and Rehm and a Forrester service ace triggered a four-point run to lead 14-10. An Oberlin kill upped the Dragon to double figures for the first time at 22-12. Rehm had five kills in the set; the final termination came on set point.
Nelson had five kills and Wiley had three kills and two blocks to power Hutchinson in the second set. The Lady Dragons scored the first five points of the set. Wiley had three-straight points – a solo block, a kill and a block assist – during a 5-0 run for an 11-2 advantage over the Conquistadors. A kill by Sherre Darden pulled Dodge City within five points at 12-7, but the Dragons pulled away scoring 13 of the final 17 points of the second to take a 2-0 match lead. HCC slammed the door on the Conqs with a Haley kill, Rehm kill and double block by Rehm and Haley on the final three points of the set.
Hutchinson dominated through the first half of the third set in the same fashion as the first two. Wiley had three kills and two blocks, while Rehm and freshman Kayla Karmazyn had two kills each and HCC built a 24-11 lead. With 13 match points in hand, that’s when things during interesting.
Birbaum’s kill got the sideout for HCC, and then Dodge’s freshman outside hitter proceeded to befuddle the Lady Dragon serve receive with eight service aces in a 13-point unanswered run to tie the set at 24-all. Dodge City then fought off a 14th match point at 25-24. Back-to-back attach errors gave HCC a 15th match point. Wiley’s last swing at the Sports Arena was a kill down the line and it punched HCC’s ticket for the weekend to Wichita.
“We knew we needed one more and we thought we had it and lost our focus,” Wiley said. “I was kind of relieved to get that ending kill, but I could have that three kills earlier. We got our focus back and got the win.”
The Lady Dragons will play top-seeded Barton (26-11) in the first match at Noon on Saturday at Newman University in Wichita. They will play again at either at 4 p.m. or 6 p.m.