By STEVE CARPENTER Hutchinson CC Sports Information
GARDEN CITY – Hutchinson Community College head volleyball coach Delice Downing had her long-awaited Blue Dragon debut spoiled on Monday night by the Garden City Broncbusters.
The Blue Dragons had issues siding outs throughout the match and Garden City produced several long scoring runs as the Busters defeated Hutchinson 3-1 (14-25, 23-25, 25-21, 20-25) in the season and Jayhawk West opener at Conestoga Arena.
Hutchinson saw a 38-match winning streak against Garden City snapped. The last Broncbuster win over the Blue Dragons came in Garden City on Sept. 14, 2001. Garden City also prevented the Blue Dragons from collecting all-time program victory No. 1,100.
Sophomore Jenna Thorne posted her first career double-double with a team-high 10 kills and a career-best 12 digs to lead the Blue Dragons. She also had two service aces. Freshman Shadee Briggs had eight kills, four digs and a pair of service aces.
Sophomore setter Chloe Price was next in kills with three. She also had 32 assists and two aces. Freshman libero Shelby Reeder finished with a team-high 16 assists.
Garden City had 57 kills to the Blue Dragons' 36. Hutch out-blocked Garden City 7-6 and the Blue Dragons finished with nine service aces.
The Broncbusters took control of the first set with an early 4-0 run to break a 5-5 tie. Then leading 11-9, the Busters reeled off five in a row for a seven-point lead.
The Blue Dragons had late leads of 17-15 and 20-19 in the second set and had to rally from a 23-20 deficit with a 3-0 run to knot the set at 23. Garden City scored the final two points of the set to take a 2-0 lead in the match.
Hutchinson stayed alive with a victory in the third set. The Dragons trailed 12-11, but went on their longest run of the match of 6-0 to take a 17-12 lead. Garden City got within three points three times, but a Buster service error gave the Blue Dragons the set.
The Blue Dragons got off to a great start in the fourth after a Sequoia Fail kill gave Hutch a 5-3 lead. But the Blue Dragons sideout issues cropped up again as Garden City went on a decisive 8-0 run and an 11-5 Hutch deficit. A Briggs ace cut the Dragon margin to 13-9 and a Briggs kill on a Buster overpass capped a 5-1 Dragon run and cut the Garden lead to 19-16. Garden City then scored four in a row to take full control of the set.
The Blue Dragons sided out only 46.5 percent in the match.
The 0-1 Blue Dragons return to the court on Thursday night for a 6 p.m. Jayhawk West match against the Pratt Beavers. Garden City improves to 3-0 (1-0 KJCCC West).