By Hutchinson CC Sports Information
HUTCHINSON, Kan. – The Hutchinson Community College volleyball team couldn’t get the offense untracked on Wednesday night at the Sports Arena in a four-set Jayhawk Conference loss to the 20th-ranked Barton Cougars.
The Blue Dragons hit .059 for the match as Barton defeated Hutchinson 26-24, 25-14, 22-25, 25-17 in a battle of the top two teams in the Jayhawk Conference.
Hutchinson fell to 15-8 for the season and 6-2 in the KJCCC. Barton is now 17-3 and 7-1 in league play. The Blue Dragons travel to Dodge City at 2 p.m. Saturday to begin the second half of league play.
The Blue Dragons tied a season high with 15 team blocks on Wednesday. Sophomores Anna Dean and Cameron Letcher had six total blocks each.
Offensively, the Blue Dragons were out-hit 50-35 in kills and were held to less than a .100 attack percentage for only the third time this season.
Taniya Golden had a team-high nine kills on 53 attacks to lead the Blue Dragons. Golden also had eight digs and two block assists.
Dean finished with six kills and a service ace. Letcher and Callie Muff had five kills each and Ashlyn Long finished with four kills.
Sophomore setter Giovanna Ravanhani had 27 assists, six digs and two kills.
Freshman Isabella Rollandini had 17 digs and two ace serves. Alondra Velez had seven digs.
Naya Danenberg had 14 kills and Anna Wierzbicki had 13 kills to lead the Cougars.
SET 1: The Blue Dragons scored on the 7 of the match’s first 10 rallies, taking a 7-3 lead after a Golden ace serve. From that point, there were 10 ties and five lead changes. Trailing 13-12, McKenzie Murphy tied the set with a kill. Trailing 15-13, the Dragons took a timeout and went on a 3-0 run, all on Cougar errors. Tied at 20-all, the Dragons took a two-point lead after a Golden kill and Barton attack error. Another Golden kill gave the Dragons a 23-21 lead. Barton scored three-straight points to earn a set-point change. It was turned away by a ball-handling error. The Cougars, who out-hit Hutchinson .116-.114, scored the final two points to win the first set.
SET 2: The Dragons hit a match-high .208 in the second set, but Barton hit .303 to win the set going away. The set was tied at 5-all and Barton took control with an early 6-2 run for an 11-7 lead and a Blue Dragon timeout. Trailing by eight, a Murphy kill cut the Barton lead to 15-8. Down 10 points, a Ravanhani kill got the lead to single-figures. Barton rolled to a 25-14 win to take a two-set lead in the match.
SET 3: The Blue Dragon block took over in the third set. Hutchinson had a single-match high 9 team blocks in the third set and held the Cougars to a minus-.049 attack percentage. Letcher had five blocks in the set and Dean added four blocks and Gabriella Panzetta had three blocks in the third set. A Dean/Panzetta double block gave the Dragons an 8-6 lead. Back-to-back Barton blocks gave the Cougars a 14-11 lead. Letcher stopped that run and Hutchinson eventually tied the set at 16-all after a Shelbi Wilson ace serve. Trailing 19-18, Dean had a kill and an ace for a 20-19 lead. Tied at 22-all, a Golden/Letcher double block gave the Dragons the lead for good. The Dragons closed out the set with blocks from Golden and Letcher and then Letcher and Precious Johnson for a 25-22 Dragon win.
SET 4: Barton scored the first five points of the set, but the Blue Dragons scored the next seven to lead 7-5 after a Barton attack error. Tied at 11, the Cougars took the lead for good on a Danenberg kill and eventually opened an 18-13 lead. The Dragons hit a minus-.083 in the fourth set and sided out at a 37-percent clip.