WICHITA – Not even 24 hours after the greatest comeback in team history in defeating Colby in five sets, the Hutchinson Community College volleyball team was in another Region VI Tournament five-setter on Sunday at Newman University.
HCC’s turnaround season came to end on Sunday as Seward County rallied from two sets down and then fought off three match points against to eliminate the Lady Dragons in the loser’s bracket final 25-22, 25-23, 25-27, 18-25, 7-15.
“It was a tough one to lose, because we fought hard for it,” HCC head coach Sarah Myers said. “I’m very proud of the effort put forth today, the way the girls worked throughout.”
Hutchinson closes the season at 16-23, a 10-win improvement from last season. The Lady Dragons went two levels deeper into the postseason this year. Now Myers will have seven freshmen returning from this team to build on for 2012.
“The entire season, knowing where we started from and where we finished, we’ve made leaps and bounds of progress,” Myers said. “I look forward to the future and excites me to have a large number of freshmen coming back as sophomores. We’ll be even more hungry for it next year.”
Playing in their 12th five-set match and second against Seward County this season, the Lady Dragons started out strong, winning two tightly played sets. But when the Saints – who rallied from 0-2 down against Hutchinson to win in September at Liberal – fought off those three match points against, they kept the momentum for the remainder of the match.
HCC came out strong, taking advantage of Seward errors to go up 3-1 early. Shayne Haley then dominated the game, posting six kills and serving three aces to help HCC to its strong start. She had a key solo block at the net at the 11-9 mark, shutting down Seward’s Sarah Miller. Hayley combined with Jade Nelson on a block to knot the match at 15-all, and then served an ace to take the Dragons to 17-15. In the closing moments, she posted a kill to give HCC a 21-10 lead, and another for a 22-21 advantage. Her block assist (with Jordan Rehm) at 23-22, set up her own serve at set point and Nelson got the final kill for a 25-22 win.
HCC fell into an early hole, committing four straight errors (three hitting and one reception) to trail 4-0 before Haley helped HCC get on the board with a cross-court kill. HCC battled back, but fell behind 12-5 on a kill by Seward’s Daiane Souza. HCC committed two errors to fall behind 14-6, but began to rally back behind kills by Cassie Wiley and Emily Oberlin to pull to 17-9. An ace by Paige Forrester pulled the Dragons to within seven. HCC struggled to pull closer until a key kill by Haley at 19-12. Seward then committed back-to-back errors and took a timeout. HCC took advantage behind a pair of aces by Haley and a huge block by Nelson and Wiley to trail only 20-18. Haley came out of the break and dropped a let serve just over the net to pull HCC to within one. The Dragons forced two-straight hitting errors from Souza to take the lead. The teams trade points, until a kill by Oberlin and a block by Young and Haley gave HCC a 2-0 match lead.
HCC and Seward again battled point for point early in the third set and remained within a point of each other to the 14-all mark. Seward took advantage of HCC hitting miscues to get an 18-16 lead, before the Dragons battled back on an ace by Forrester to knot it at 18-all. The two teams continued to battle, before Seward rallied behind the hitting of Souza, who recorded five kills in the final seven points to lead the Saints to a 27-25 win.
Seward led the fourth set 9-7, but HCC responded with Haley Young winning a joust at the net to pull within one. Three unforced errors by HCC let Seward pull away to a 12-8 advantage, then used strong blocking and an ace by Courtney Geesing to gain a 14-9 margin. Souza’s key kill upped the Seward lead to 17-11 lead. Coming out of a timeout, HCC scored two straight but weren’t to keep momentum as Geesing got three kills in quick succession to pull the Saints to a 20-14 lead, and they held on to win 25-18.
HCC struggled early in the fifth set with back-to-back ball handling errors to fall behind 3-0 in the early going. Wiley got two critical kills to help the Dragons rally back to within 5-2, but Seward County continued to find a way and pulled out to an 8-4 lead behind a kill by Souza. Geesing closed out the match for Seward County, posting the last five points to complete the comeback.
HCC sophomores Jordan Rehm and Cassie Wiley closed out their HCC careers on a high note. Wiley completes her career No. 5 on the Lady Dragon career blocks .
“I’m very proud of both my sophomores, for the amount they’ve grown as individuals, and especially as team players,” Myers said. “I’m excited to see what the future brings for them, and I know they will both have success at their next school.”
(HCC Sports Information)