Hutchinson CC Sports Information
Led by a career single-match high seven aces serves from sophomore Mattie Galliher, the Hutchinson Community College volleyball team defeated the Seward County Saints in four sets and advanced in the Region 6 Volleyball Tournament.
The Blue Dragons dropped 14 ace serves in a 25-16, 23-25, 25-22, 28-26 Region 6 opening-round victory on Wednesday at the Sports Arena.
Fourth-seeded Hutchinson (19-13) advances to the Region 6 Tournament semifinals for the second-straight season. The Blue Dragons will play top-seeded Dodge City at 5 p.m. at the Dodge City Student Activities Center in the first of two semifinals. Barton and Colby will play in the second semifinal at 7:30 p.m.
The Blue Dragons' stress on the Seward County serve receive was the biggest different in a very tight match.
Hutchinson had a season-high 14 aces to Seward's five aces. Five different Dragon players – Galliher with 7, Klaudia Bilinksa with 3, Julia Macedo with 2 and one each from Ashley Scott and Ellie Prather – had aces in the match.
The Blue Dragons outhit the Saints .265-.241 with 54 kills to Seward's 53. Seward had a slight 5-3 advantage in blocks and digs were tied at 66-66. There were 30 overall ties and 18 overall lead changes in the match.
Freshman Kelsi Maier had a season-high 14 kills, hitting .353 on 34 attacks to lead the Blue Dragons.
Sophomore Lauren Vasquez and Macedo had 13 kills each. Vasquez hit .205 on 39 attacks, while Macedo hit .273 on 33 attacks. Macedo also had nine digs.
Bilinksa finished with 42 assists, three kills and had her second double-double of the season adding 10 digs.
Sophomore libero Clara Oliveira had a team-high 18 digs to move to 1,084 for her career. She is 13 digs shy of moving into fourth place on the career digs list. Freshman Arianna Delgado and Scott had seven digs each.
Luisa Bergantini had a match-high 19 kills to lead the Saints.
SET 1: The Blue Dragons hit .333 on 13 kills, holding the Saints to .212 hitting. Tied at 8-all, the Dragons went on a 7-0 run with two Vasquez kills and two Bilinksa aces leading the charge. The lead grew to nine at 2011 after a Saint attack error. Seward pulled as close as 23-18, but Vasquez had a kill for a momentum-stopping sideout and Macedo's kill off the block gave the Dragons a 25-18 set win. The Dragons sided out at 64 percent in the opening set.
SET 2: Seward County's defense picked up in the second set, holding the Dragons to .162 hitting. The Dragons trailed early at 10-7, 13-10 and 16-13. The Dragons never could complete and second-set comeback. Maier's kill pulled the Dragons within 20-18 and a Seward attack error made it 20-19. Then trailing 24-20, the Dragons fought off three set points – two on aces from Galliher – to pull within 24-23, but Seward scored the final point to even the match at 1-1.
SET 3: The Blue Dragons found themselves down 15-11 in the third set, but Maria Eduarda Dias had a key kill for a sideout. Trailing 20-19, Galliher dropped another ace to tie the set at 20. The Dragons then got kills from Bilinksa and Vasquez and a Seward attack error to build a 23-20 lead. The Dragons closed out the set with kills from Vasquez and Bilinksa. The Dragons hit .187 in the set to .235 for the Saints.
SET 4: Both teams' offenses kicked into high gear in the fourth set with the Dragons hitting .368 on 20 kills, while Seward hit .333 on 18 kills. In the fourth set alone there were 13 ties and eight lead changes. The Dragons trailed 18-15. A Vasquez kill earned a big sideout for Hutchinson. The Dragons took a 20-19 lead after a Macedo kill. From that point, there were seven ties and two lead changes and the Dragons fought off a set point against with a Vasquez kill to knot the set at 25-25. Tied at 26-26, the Dragons close out the match with consecutive kills from Vasquez and Macedo.