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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Monday, October 29, 2007
All-America Ludmila Amaral was nearly
unstoppable as she pounded down 19 kills on 22 attacks to lead the Division
I, 13th-ranked Hutchinson Community College volleyball team to a 3-0 sweep
of Division II, No. 3 Cowley College in the regular-season finale on Monday
night at the Sports Arena.
Hutchinson, playing its 23rd match against a
nationally ranked opponent, defeated the Tigers for the second time this
season, winning, 30-22, 30-25, 30-26.
“Cowley’s a very good team. They have some
strong hitters and were putting up a good block,” said HCC head coach Ronda
Shirley, whose team will have the second seed in this weekend’s Region VI
Tournament at the Sports Arena.
“If we are going to get prepared for Region
VI, we have to find somebody to come in here and challenge us and make us
play hard. The only way you are going to grow as a team is that you have to
play teams as good as you or better to make you understand how hard to have
to play to succeed.”
Monday’s match was added late to the
schedule. If it were not for Monday’s match, the Lady Dragons (24-15) would
have had 11 days between its last match against Cloud County and the Region
VI opener against the Seward County/Cloud County winner.
Amaral’s .863 hitting percentage is a career
high for the Lady Dragon sophomore All-America middle blocker. It’s is also
the third-highest hitting percentage in a single match regardless of length
in Lady Dragon history. She also tied Thais Franca (2004-05) for second
place on HCC’s career kills list with 794.
Amaral’s strong performance helped a good
offensive outing for the Lady Dragons, who hit .318 as a team on 52 kills.
It’s the second-straight match and the 13th time the Lady Dragons have hit
.300 or better.
Freshman Molly Bergkamp had her
third-straight double-double and 11 of the season with 14 kills and 15 digs
while hitting a .228.
Freshman Melissa Gmur had 41 assists and is
now nine assists short of becoming the sixth Lady Dragon I program history
with 1,000 assists for a season. Gmur hit a .384 on five kills and added
seven digs.
“It’s tough, but we love it,” Gmur said,
referring to the Lady Dragons’ schedule. “We are all competitors. We all
wanted to play a tough schedule. We got through us and it’s going to help in
Region VI.”
Sophomore Nikki Cannon had six kills, hitting
a .307. Sophomore Sarah Unruh had six kills and freshman LaToya Taylor added
five kills.
There were six ties and two lead changes in
Game 1 before HCC took control at 13-all with a 9-1 run. The Lady Dragons
hit a match-low .289 in the opening game. Amaral had six kills, two blocks
and an ace in the opening game.
Hutchinson dominated the first two-third of
Game 2, building a 20-9 lead. The Lady Dragons hit .414 in the game. But
Cowley went on a 15-7 run and pulled within 27-24 on a stuff block. Amaral
pounded down her sixth kill of the game to get a needed sideout and three
points later, Unruh blasted a kill to give HCC a 2-0 lead.
The third game more resembled the opener with
11 ties and two lead changes. At 25-all, Canon’s kill started a
match-clinching 5-1 run. Bergkamp had three straight kills to bring HCC to
match point. Two points later, a Cowley attack error ended the match.
“We were definitely ready for a tough match.
Cowley’s a good team,” Bergkamp said. “They are ranked high in Division II,
but we played a pretty good game.”
MATCH NOTES
– Hutchinson won its 20th consecutive match against teams from the Jayhawk
East. That streak dates back to a September 2003 loss to Independence. … The
Lady Dragons are 9-14 in matches involving ranked teams this season. … With
her seven digs against Cowley, sophomore libero KeAnne Langford moved into
second place on the HCC single-season digs list with 552, moving past
Jasmine Sherrill (2001). … HCC had eight total blocks in the match.
<HCC-COWLEY PHOTO
GALLERY>
OTHER QUOTES
Head coach Ronda Shirley
On playing a tough schedule …
Cowley’s a very good team. They have some
strong hitters and were putting up a good block. If we are going to get
prepared for Region VI, we have to find somebody to come in here and
challenge us and make us play hard. The only way you are going to grow as a
team is that you have to play teams as good as you or better to make you
understand how hard to have to play to succeed.
On fitting this game into the schedule …
It’s much better than us staring at each
other across the net for a week. We knew what each other is going to do and
we needed to see somebody different again.
Freshman Molly Bergkamp
On the toughness of schedule …
From the very beginning, we were playing
nationally ranked teams and it’s really helped us tremendously. Although our
record may not be the greatest, it’s going to help us in the long run and we
are going to be prepared at the end of the season.
On of the schedule was overwhelming …
It was a little at first, but it’s nice on
the weekends to play really difficult teams and go into the conference and
play well.
Freshman Melissa Gmur
On the tough season schedule …
It really prepares us for the good teams.
Playing weak teams really doesn’t help us in the long run. Playing tough
teams prepares us mentally and physically. |
