By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Monday, September 5, 2011
The HutchinsonCommunity College volleyball team won consecutive matches for the first time this season and remained undefeated in Jayhawk West play with a 3-0 conference victory over Garden City on Monday night at the Sports Arena.
Freshman Ashlyn Westerman had a season-high nine service aces to lead HCCto a 25-15, 25-21, 25-6 victory over the Broncbusters. This wasHutchinson’s first match sweep of the season. The Lady Dragons climb to 4-6 overall and 2-0 in the Jayhawk West. The match took 1 hour, 12 minutes.
Hutchinson’s third-set victory was one of its most dominant sets since the introduction of rally scoring in 2001.
The six points was the second fewest ever allowed in the rally score era. The team record is three, which came against Garden City two seasons ago. It’s the fewest points allowed in a set since giving up eight in the second set to Spartanburg Methodist Collegein the second round of the 2009 NJCAA Tournament.
“First and foremost, you are happy to get the win,”HCC head coach Sarah Myers said. “I was proud of them for coming out in the third and dominating the match from the first point to the last point. They got the first point and pushed all the way to the last point.
“It should have been that way in all three.”
Westerman had nine ofHCC’s 11 services aces. The Lady Dragons hit .284 as a team and had four team blocks.
Freshman Shayne Haley was the Lady Dragons’ top hitter with a match-high 11 kills on .476 hitting. Sophomore Jordan Rehm and freshman Jade Nelson had nine kills each. Nelson hit a .353.
Freshman setter Hayley Young had 25 assists. Rehm led the Lady Dragons with nine aces. Sophomore Cassie Wiley had five kills and six total blocks (4 solo blocks).
Paula Gonzalez had seven kills to lead Garden City (0-10, 0-2 Jayhawk West).
“We came in with the attitude that this was no big deal,” Westerman said. “We didn’t come in with the intensity that we should have. At the break, we were told to get it together. We came out and got it done.”
The first set was tied at 5-all whenHutchinsonfinally started to assert itself. Haley’s kill on a quick set to the middle capped a 10-3 HCC run to give the Lady Dragons a 15-8 lead. A kill and an ace by Stephanie Flores pulled the Busters within 10-6 and forced anHCCtimeout.
Leading 16-12, HCC reeled off four in a row, taking a 20-12 lead on another Haley kill. At 21-14, the Lady Dragons reeled off four in a row, closing the set on a Wiley kill.
Garden City put up the most resistance in the second set, but HCC helped the Busters out along the way. Thirteen of Garden City’s 21 points were scored off HCC errors, including seven service errors.
HCC led by as many as six points early in the second set, but Garden City hung around and trailed by as few as three points seven times. The final time, at 24-21, Rehm closed out the set with a kill to give HCC a 2-0 match lead.
Rehm’s kill at 4-3 started and quick onslaught by the Lady Dragons to close out the Busters. That kill started a 21-3 run.HCChad a 10-0 run, getting four services aces from Westerman during the run. Leading 21-6, the Lady Dragons closed it out in style with kills from Wiley, Rehm and back-to-back terminations by Haley.
“It’s nice to get such a young team a three-set victory on their home court,” Myers said. “We have an opportunity to get something going. The girls are going to get some rest this week. They haven’t had much down time since we started.”
The Lady Dragons play their first conference road match of the season on Wednesday in a 6:30 p.m.match at Cloud County.