(HCC Sports Information)
The Hutchinson Community College volleyball team secured a Region VI Tournament opening-round match next week after surviving a five-set marathon with Dodge City in the regular-season home finale on Wednesday night at the Sports Arena.
The Lady Dragons let five fourth-set match points get away and then had to fight off two match points against in the fifth set before defeating the Conquistadors 3-2 (19-25, 25-19, 25-21, 27-29, 18-16).
Hutchinson’s win, combined with Seward County’s loss to Barton on Wednesday, means the Lady Dragons and Saints tie for third place in the Jayhawk West. The Lady Dragons (13-18, 9-5 Jayhawk West) will be the fourth seed for the 2011 Region VI Tournament. The Lady Dragons will play host to Dodge City (17-17, 7-7) once again, this time at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday at the Sports Arena. The winner then advances to the double-elimination portion of the Region VI Tournament at Newman University in Wichita.
“It means a lot to play again at home,” sophomore Cassie Wiley said. “It was real memorable to go out with a conference win, because not every team gets to do that. But we do.”
The Lady Dragons had to rally after dropping the first set and led 2-1 and 24-19 in the fourth after a Hayley Young service ace. Dodge City fought off all five match points and on its fourth set point forced a fifth set with a combo block by Emily Scheck and Haley Harbour.
Dodge City led 14-13 in the fifth and had three match points, but the Lady Dragons answered this time with match-saving kills from sophomores Jordan Rehm and Cassie Wiley and a Conquistador net violation. HCC took a 17-16 lead on a combo block by Wiley and Hayley Young. HCC clinched the match with a Dodge City attack into the net.
“I wouldn’t say that got us more confident,” said. Rehm of fighting off two match points against. “We were just like, ‘We can do this. We know we can do this. Why don’t we do this.’ ”
“We just had to get them to relax in the fifth set and shake off what happened,” HCC coach Sarah Myers said. “Yeah, we weren’t able to close it out, but we had to calm down before the fifth set.”
Young had a career-high 54 set assists, which tied for the fifth-most set assists in a match in Lady Dragon history. The freshman setter had five kills, five blocks and a team-high four aces.
Rehm had her 10th double-double of the season with 18 kills and 19 digs. She hit .354.
Freshman Kayla Karmazyn posted her first career double-double with career highs of 14 kills, 15 digs, a .315 hitting percentage and three service aces.
Wiley had 13 kills, no attack errors and a .541 hitting percentage. She had had six blocks to move into fifth place on the career blocks list.
Freshman Jade Nelson had 11 kills and five blocks. Freshman Paige Forrester had her fourth 20-plus dig match of the season with a team-high 21 digs.
The Lady Dragons out-hit Dodge City 62-58 and out-blocked the Conquistadors 12-7. HCC also had nine service aces.
Chantal Birbaum had 16 kills to lead three Dodge City hitters in double figures in kills. Maggie Hans had 15 kills and Sherri Darden had 11 kills.
HCC led 17-15 in the first set and Dodge City closed on a 10-2 run to win the set. Birbaum had four kills and Gabriella Mendonca had three kills.
The Lady Dragons raced out to a 5-1 lead in the second set and never relinquished the lead. Nelson had six kills and Karmazyn added three. A tip for a kill by Rehm gave HCC its largest lead of the set at 15-10. Dodge City got as close as 21-18, but kills by Karmazyn and Nelson and a service ace by Young were part of a 4-1 set-clinching run.
The third set had 10 ties and six lead changes. Rehm and Karmazyn had four kills each and Wiley had three kills and two blocks to lead HCC, which trailed for the last time at 17-16. Leading 23-21 before back-to-back kills by Karmazyn clinched the third set to give Hutchinson a 2-1 match lead.
The fourth set was tied at 13-all when the Lady Dragons went on a 7-1 run to lead 20-14 after a Karmazym kill. A Young service ace brought the Lady Dragons to the brink of a victory at 24-19. That’s when Dodge City’s Hans caught fire. She had eight kills in the fourth set, three coming during a run that erased all five HCC match points. The Conquistadors then had three set points, but kills by Nelson, Rehm and Wiley kept the Lady Dragons alive. A Birbaum kill and stuff block gave Dodge City the win to knot the match at 2-2.
Outside of a 1-0 Hutch lead, Dodge City had control of the fifth set. At 11-all, it looked like HCC had the lead on an attack error, but the Lady Dragons were called into the net for a key swing in the match. A Mendonca kill upped the Dodge City lead to 13-11. HCC fought back with a Nelson kill and Conq attack error to tie the set at 13-all. Birbaum’s kill got the Conquistadors to match point at 14-13. Dodge City had three match points, but Rehm and Wiley had huge kills and at 16-15, the Conqs were called into the net. HCC got to its sixth match point on a double block by Wiley and Young. Dodge City then put an attack into the net to give HCC the match.
Hutchinson will close the regular season out on Friday and Saturday with four matches at the Jefferson College Tournament in Hillsboro, Mo.