By STEVE CARPENTER - Hutchinson CC Sports Information
The Hutchinson Community College volleyball team has lost four five-set matches this season, all seemingly with funny bounces off the net cord that went against the Blue Dragons in those decisive sets.
Call it poetic justice, but with the 2021 season on the brink of abruptly ending in the fifth set of their Region VI Tournament opening-round match against Garden City on Tuesday at the Sports Arena, the net cord finally favored the Blue Dragons in the fifth set.
Hutchinson advanced to the Region VI Tournament semifinals for the 10th consecutive season with a thrilling 25-15, 19-25, 25-19, 21-25, 15-11 opening-round victory over the Broncbusters. The Blue Dragons, now 18-9, will take on 23-4 Barton in the semifinals of the Region VI Tournament at the Green House in Liberal. The match is set to begin 40 minutes after the conclusion of the Seward County-Colby match, slated for Noon. The Region VI championship match will be one hour after the completion of the Hutchinson-Barton match.
Garden City's Reagen Karlin had back-to-back kills to pull Garden City within 12-11 in the fifth set and forced a Blue Dragon timeout. After a slow offense start to the match, freshman Shadee Briggs got the set on the next rally.
Taking her attack from the 10-foot line and trying to go high-hands off the Buster block, Briggs' attack was blocked and the ball rolled along the net cord with no Blue Dragon near to cover off the net. Somehow, the ball crawled on the cord long enough to go out, giving Briggs a kill and the Blue Dragons a 13-11 lead. Jenna Thorne served an ace for a 14-11 lead and Garden City's final attack went long on match point to finish the match.
Briggs, who had just two kills in the first two sets, had 13 kills over the final three – four kills in the fifth set – and finished with a double-double with 15 kills and 16 digs.
Thorne led the Blue Dragons with a match-high 21 kills with three total blocks and three aces. Kristina Head had 16 kills and Taegen Larsen finished with nine kills.
The Blue Dragons had four players with 16 or more digs on a tremendous night for the Hutch back row. Libero Shelby Reeder tallied 25 digs to lead the Dragons. Freshman Kenna Lane had a career-high 17 digs as did setter Chloe Price and Briggs had 16 digs.
Price finished with a career-high 59 assists as Hutchinson posted 71 total kills in the fifth-set match.
Karlin had 17 kills, Tauja Durham had 13 and Alli Meng had 11 kills and three service aces to lead the Busters.
The Blue Dragons trailed 11-8 in the opening set and turned things around with an 8-1 run, which was capped by Thorne ace for a 16-12 Hutchinson lead. Larsen came up with a pair of big first-set kills at 18-13 and 20-14 after pounding down an over-dig. The Dragons closed on a 5-0 run with a Price dump for a kill, back-to-back Thorne kills, a Reeder ace and Thorne's fifth kill of the opening stanza on set point for a 25-15 win.
Tied at 4-all in the second set, the Busters scored four in a row to force a Dragon timeout at 8-4. Trailing 11-5, Briggs had a kill, Larsen terminated twice in a row and Thorne had a solo block to pull the Dragons within 11-9. Unlike the first set, the Busters never led the Dragons catch them. Hutch had the set at 13-11, 15-13, 16-14 and a Head kill pulled the Dragons within 18-17. A Karlin kill on the next rally sparked the Busters to a set-clinching 7-2 run to knot the match a 1-1.
Leading the third set 11-10, the Dragons got kills from Head and Shelby Murrell to take a three-point lead. Garden City scored on the next three rally to tie the set at 13-all. The Dragons answered that challenging with a 6-1 run to lead 19-14 after a Kersti Nelson service ace, one of eight Dragon aces in the match. The Busters pulled within 19-17. Briggs stopped the surge with a tip over the block for a kill and a head kill. Hutchinson scored its final four points of the third set on Garden City errors for a 25-19 win and a 2-1 match lead.
With Briggs on fire, she had two early kills in the fourth set for an 8-4 lead. Garden City scored on 8 of the next 11 rallies to take a 12-11 lead on a Durham kill. Like the second set, the Dragons stayed close, but could never grab the lead. Trailing 22-18, Thorne had a kill, Murrell and Price had a double block and Garden City had an attack error to pull Hutch within 22-21. The Busters got two Angel Sherman solo blocks and a Remy Vargas ace to close out the set and take the match to the fifth set.
The Dragons trailed 5-3 and knotted the set at 5-all with a Briggs kill and Garden attack error. Down 6-4, Hutch had four consecutive points with kills from Briggs, Head, Larsen and Briggs again for a 9-6 lead. A Thorne kill made it 12-9 Hutchinson before Karlin's back-to-back kills pulled Garden City within 12-11 to force a Dragon timeout. The next point was Briggs' net-cord kill that made it 13-11.