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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Friday, September 28, 2007
All-American Ludmila Amaral played up to her
lofty status, but the 16th-ranked Hutchinson Community College volleyball
team had plenty of other heroes on Friday during two victories at the 2007
Tyson Foods Invitational at the Sports Arena.
HCC opened the day with a four-game victory
over Jefferson College 30-24, 30-23, 28-30, 30-22. The shorthanded Lady
Dragons then rallied from a 2-1 deficit against No. 15 San Jacinto and
toppled the Ravens in a thrilling five-game battle, 27-30, 30-23, 24-30,
30-16, 15-12.
“It’s so good to see them play like I knew
they could play,” said HCC head coach Ronda Shirley, who lost the services
of freshman middle blocker LaToya Taylor for the weekend in the second game
of the Jefferson match to injury.
“It was so frustrating because I could never
get it out of them and never have them see how good they could play. Maybe
it was adversity that finally brought it out of us. With having to change
lineups and having people injured. People stepped in their roles and played
great together. It’s what I’ve been wanting from them all season.”
Against San Jacinto, the heroes were many:
+ Amaral posted a career-high 20 kills and
had her second double-double of the day adding 10 digs, eight blocks and
four huge ace serves. She also jumped past Ashton Thomas (2001-02) and
Brandi Hood (2005-06) into third on the Lady Dragon career kills list with
661.
+ Sophomore Sarah Unruh came to life in games
4 and 5. After being shut out in Game 3, Unruh hit .714 in the fourth game
with four kills and .667 in the fifth game with four kills to finish with 13
kills for the match.
+ Sophomore libero KeAnne Langford had a
third-straight match with 28 or more digs, tallying 29, the fourth-most in
Lady Dragon history.
+ Freshman setter Melissa Gmur continually
found the hot hitter, posing 39 assists with two huge ace serves and five
big kills on setter dumps.
+ Sophomore Nikki Canon was asked to step in
for the injured Taylor as a middle blocker. Her stat line of two kills and
five blocks wasn’t eye-popping, but she was able to get a hand on several
San Jacinto attacks that allowed the defense to keep rallies alive. The
5-foot-9 Canon was facing a San Jac front line that went 6-3, 6-2, 5-10 and
5-10.
“I haven’t played middle in four years,”
Canon said. “(Winning this match was) really important. It made us work more
together and made us communicate. Everybody did a really good job and pulled
together.”
The Lady Dragons (18-10
overall) bucked a trend against San
Jacinto.
For the first time in 2007, HCC rallied to
win a match after dropping the first game. Before Friday night, HCC was 17-0
when winning Game 1 and 0-10 when losing Game 1.
“It was really important,” Gmur said. “It
showed we had a lot of heart. We knew it would be tough. We had something to
prove.”
After Game 1, a thrilling five-game match was
far from the Lady Dragons’ collective mind after hitting a minus-.080 with
10 hitting errors. San Jacinto wasn’t much better, barely hitting a positive
percentage, but took charge at 27-all when powerful Julia Teixeira (21
kills) had a kill and combo block with Lindsey Schindler and Ligia Clemente
pounded a kill on game point for a 1-0 Raven lead.
Amaral carried the Lady Dragons early in Game
2 with six kills, three aces and a block. She reeled off three straight ace
serves and Unruh had a stuff block to cap a 7-0 Lady Dragon run. Amaral also
had three straight terminations and four overall during a decisive 7-3 run
to close out Game 2 and tie the match at 1-1.
Amaral was Hutch’s only offense in the third
game with six kills, but San Jac’s Teixeira caught fire, blasting seven of
her 21 kills in Game 3. Bruna Rocha (11 kills) and Karly Rasmussen (15
kills) added five and four kills, respectively, as San Jac scored 8 of the
final 12 points in the game to take a 2-1 match lead. HCC hit just .044 in
Game 3.
The Lady Dragons rebounded in Game 4, hitting
a sparkling .300 in routing the Ravens 30-16. Amaral was still pounding
away, but Unruh had four big kills in a stretch where the Lady Dragons took
command. Leading 10-6, three Unruh kills helped HCC push out to a 21-13
lead. Her fourth kill of the game came on game point and tied the match at
2-all.
“Sarah Unruh picked it up in the end,”
Shirley said. “She wanted the ball and knew she could get a sideout or a
kill on a big point that we needed. That’s what I needed from my sophomores.
They need to be the go-to people.”
Tied 2-2 in the fifth, Unruh’s kill gave HCC
the lead for good. San Jac had five chances to tie the game at 5-4, 9-8,
10-9, 12-11 and 13-12. San Jacinto committed a passing effort at 14-12 and
had its 30th attack error on match point.
Jefferson College recap – Amaral had 18 kills, while Unruh
tied her career high with 18 kills and KeAnne Langford
had another huge match with 28 digs in a 3-1 victory over the Vikings.
Amaral hit a .531 on 18 kills, falling one
kill short of her old career high. She also had seven blocks, 10 digs, two
assists and one ace.
Unruh hit a solid .275 on her 18 kills.
Freshman Molly Bergkamp posted her fourth double-double of the season with
10 kills and 13 digs. Canon had six kills,
seven digs and two blocks.
Gmur had her seventh double-double with 46
assists, one off her season high, and 18 digs. The Lady Dragons hit .299 as
a team.
Unruh and Amaral set the pace in Game 1 with
seven and six kills, respectively. HCC hit .297 as a team on 17 kills as it
grabbed the lead and never relinquished it in Game 1. Leading 17-15, Hutch
reeled off eight straight points to take charge. Back-to-back blocks by
Amaral and Bergkamp upped the Dragon lead to 25-15. Jefferson climbed back
to within four at 28-24, but consecutive kills by Unruh put the game away
for Hutch.
Game 2 saw five ties early before HCC started
to pull away. At 5-5, Hutch scored four straight points to take the lead. At
13-10, the Dragons went on a 9-4 run to lead 22-14. Jefferson pulled to
within three at 23-20, but Unruh had two kills and a stuff block on three
consecutive points to help the Lady Dragons pull away.
The second game was costly for both teams.
That was the game where HCC’s Taylor suffered her injury. She later returned
to play, but the same couldn’t be said for Jefferson All-America Ya Chen
Wang, who left the match because of injury and didn’t return.
Hutch dropped the third game, but nearly
pulled out a tremendous rally, staving off five game points to go from down
29-23 to within 29-28. The Vikings finally finished off Hutch on a Marcella
Maediera kill.
A balanced offense carried Hutch in Game 4
with four different Lady Dragons posting at least three kills in the game.
Amaral and Unruh had four each, while Canon and Bergkamp had three each.
Tied at 7-all, the Dragons raced out to a 19-11 lead on a 12-4 run.
Jefferson rallied back to within three at 19-16, but a Canon kill stopped
that run. Hutch finished off the match with a 7-2 run, which included three
straight kills by Unruh during a 5-0 spurt that buried the Vikings.
Thais Soares had 15 kills to lead Jefferson,
while Brooke Boyer had 14 and Becky Mann had 12 to lead Jefferson.
MATCH NOTES
– HCC is now 2-1 in five-game matches this season. … HCC is 4-0 at the
Sports Arena in 2007. … In her last three matches, KeAnne Langford has
85 digs in her last three matches. … Amaral’s 55 attacks against San Jac
were the fourth most ever in an HCC match. … Freshman Amanda Stucky had a
season-high 10 digs against San Jacinto. … Six different players had double-figure digs
against San Jac. Bergkamp had 15 and Crystal Foss added 13.
<JEFFERSON BOX>
<SAN JACINTO BOX>
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach Ronda Shirley
On Ludmila Amaral …
“She’s been one of our most consistent
players. At crunch time, we are going to get it out of her. Melissa did a
great job setting. She understood who was on. Ludi did a great job, too. She
did what she does best. Her serving game was a lot better than it has been.
She stepped it up and is playing extremely well.”
About the defense …
“It volleyball, it’s not always about size
and power. We had to pick up our floor defense. They were a big team. People
probably thought it wouldn’t be a contest. We fought harder and we played a
better floor defense.”
Sophomore Nikki Canon …
On Ludmila Amaral …
“Ludi is always pretty much on so we tried to
feed her as much as we can. It’s hard to get a hold of her swing and get a
block on them.”
On rallying to win Games four and five
after trailing 2-1 …
“We just really wanted it. We know we had to
come out with the attitude that there was no way we were going to lose this
game.”
Freshman Melissa Gmur
On the timing with her hitters …
“Sometimes it takes a little while to get
used to each other and get used to playing. I have some great hitters behind
me, so I trust them to hit anything I set up.”
On the team’s defense …
“We really have stepped our defense up. It’s
a setter’s dream to set those balls. We are stepping it up defensively and
getting our hitters some good swings. Defense is definitely important
against the other teams’ big guns. Defense is going to win it for us.” |
