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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
After playing nine consecutive matches
against nationally ranked competition, the 13th-ranked Hutchinson Community
College volleyball team came out lethargic against unranked Colby in a key
Jayhawk West battle on Wednesday night at the Sports Arena.
But once the Lady Dragons shook off the
doldrums, they shut down the Trojans in a 33-31, 30-11, 30-17 sweep.
Hutchinson (22-15 overall, 6-1 Jayhawk West) is tied with Seward County in the
regional standings at 3-1. HCC has the tie-breaker over the Saints by virtue
of an Oct. 3 victory at the Sports Arena. The Lady Dragons can clinch the
second seed and a bye into the Region VI Final Four with a victory at Cloud
County next Wednesday night. Seward County plays at Barton County next
Wednesday. A Seward County loss in that match would also clinch second for
Hutchinson.
The Lady Dragons trailed Colby three
different times in Game 1 and had to fight off two game points against in
the opener. Hutch had two game points of its own and finally put Colby away
on game-point No. 3 when freshman setter Melissa Gmur scored one of her
match-high five ace serves.
“We weren’t ready,” sophomore middle blocker
Nikki Canon said. “That’s the bottom line. We didn’t come out with the
mindset to play to the best of our ability.”
The Lady Dragon’ mindset changed quickly
after Game 1.
Hutch started the second game on an
incredible 18-2 run. That run was part of a stretch of the match where
Hutchinson scored on 39 of 51 points to leave Colby (18-17, 3-3, 1-3) in the
dust.
Superior play at the net quickly turned
things around for HCC. In winning Game 2 by 19 points, Hutch had just eight
kills, but scored nine block points.
“We had to slow down our block,” HCC head
coach Ronda Shirley said. “Once we got our timing down on our blocks, we
started putting up a lot of points on the block. The same thing hitting the
ball. It seemed like we were getting there too fast and our reactions were
too fast and the ball wasn’t coming at the velocity we’ve seen the last
couple of weeks.”
Hutchinson outblocked Colby 15-6. The Trojans
had five blocks in that tight first game and just one stuff block the rest
of the way.
“Our blocking was one thing that helped our
whole game,” freshman Molly Bergkamp said. “Their confidence was way down
after that we ours was sky high.”
Bergkamp was the only Lady Dragon in double
figures with 10 kills, hitting a .241. She had a match-high 19 digs to post
her ninth double-double of the season.
All-American Ludmila Amaral hit a .380 with
eight kills, six blocks and a season-high 13 digs. Amaral also became the
second Lady Dragon in history to reach the career 300-block plateau. She now
has 302.5 for her career.
Sophomore Sarah Unruh blasted nine kills on
.185 hitting. Canon had five kills, three blocks and five digs. Freshman
LaToya Taylor also had five blocks.
Freshman setter Melissa Gmur had 30 set
assists and five kills on .357 hitting. Her five service aces helped her
jump into HCC’s single-season list. Gmur’s 58 aces this season is now tied
for eighth with Jayme Schlake (2003). She had her 11th double-double of the
season.
Sophomore libero KeAnne Langford had 18 digs,
her 26th match in double figures this season. That gives Langford 529 digs
for the season, which moves her into third place on HCC’s single-season digs
list.
Colby scored the first three points of the
opening game, but HCC rebounded quickly to lead 14-9 after a Bergkamp kill.
The lead was six at 19-13 when Colby went on an 11-4 run and took a 24-23
lead on Vicmari Prospero’s ace serve.
From that point, the game was tied at 24-24,
26-26 and 27-27 before back-to-back kills by Paloma Alvarez and Prospero
gave Colby a 29-27 lead and two game points. Back-to-back Amaral kills and a
Colby hitting error pulled HCC from the brink to lead 30-29.
HCC had a pair of game points wiped away by
Colby, but with the game tied at 31-all, an Unruh kill and Gmur ace sealed
Game 1 for Hutchinson.
“In the first game, we didn’t come out as
ready as we could be,” Canon said. “We didn’t think (Colby) would lie down
and die, but we didn’t think we would have to come out and go full speed
ahead like we had to against some of the better teams we played this year.”
Game 2 was much different with Hutch taking
charge right away, especially at the net. Seven points in HCC’s initial 18-2
run to start the second game came from stuff blocks. Back-to-back blocks by
Taylor and Canon gave Hutchinson an incredible 23-3 lead. An Amaral kill
finished off HCC’s most decisive game victory this season.
The Lady Dragons pounded away at Colby in
Game 3. HCC hit .232 on 15 kills in the finale. HCC built a 10-3 lead, but
Colby closed within four points at 12-8 on an Alvarez block. With HCC
leading 15-10, the Lady Dragons went on an 11-4 run to build a 26-14 lead.
Prospero had 10 kills to lead Colby. Jessica
Catalano had eight and Rafaella Dornelas had eight for the Trojans.
MATCH NOTES
– HCC moved up one spot to No. 13 in the latest NJCAA Division I volleyball
poll, which was released earlier Wednesday. The Lady Dragons went 1-4 last
week with all five matches coming against nationally ranked competition. …
KeAnne Langford moved into ninth place on the career digs chart with 675.
She moved past Stefanie Sloan (2002-03). … Amaral’s 382 kills for the season
ranks No. 5 in the single-season list. Sophomore Sarah Unruh is now 12th on
the single-season kills list with 323. … Amaral has 145.5 total blocks this
season, which is sixth best in a single season. … Melissa Gmur’s 30 assists
upped her season total to 950 for the season, which is sixth on the
single-season list. She is bidding to become HCC’s sixth setter to have
1,000 assists in a season.
<HCC-COLBY PHOTO
GALLERY>
OTHER QUOTES
Head Coach Ronda Shirley
On her team recovering from a slow
start …
“We started playing with some pep in our
step. We started out so dead. We weren’t moving on defense. We weren’t
blocking. We seemed in slow motion, very lethargic. I wasn’t expecting us to
start so slow and slow sloppy.”
On her team’s blocking …
“Our blocking was good all the way around.
Everybody was contributing. For us, if we can have that kind of blocking
game, it builds confidence with the rest of our game. Once we got the pace
of our passing game down, our setting and hitting picked up with it, too.”
Sophomore Nikki Canon
On how the blocking turned the match
around …
“We did get a lot of blocks and it really
helped out our back-row players and gave them a rest for a second. That’s
the main component we have to have on all the time is our blocking.”
On the team’s confidence in Game 1 …
“I’m always confident when we are in tight
games because we are a strong team and we can pull through. I know we can do
it mentally.”
Freshman Molly Bergkamp
On why HCC got off to a slow start …
“Intensity. The first game we were just
walking through things and thinking we were going to be able to not give 100
percent and win the game. We picked up our intensity in the second and third
games and put it away.” |
