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By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
PRATT – It was an
inauspicious conference opener for the 13th-ranked Hutchinson Community
College volleyball team on Tuesday night.
The Lady Dragons lost a
Jayhawk Conference opener for the first time since 1998 and lost to Pratt
for the first time since 1999 as the 18th-ranked Beavers defeated Hutchinson
in four sets – 25-20, 17-25, 30-28, 26-24 – at the Dennis Lesh Sports Arena.
“Pratt came ready to play
and they are talented,” HCC head coach Ronda Shirley said. “Do I feel that
we played to the best of our ability? No. But do I feel that Pratt deserves
the win? Yes.”
Pratt (6-1, 1-0 Jayhawk
West) becomes the first conference team other than Barton or Seward County
to defeat Hutchinson in a league match since 2000.
The Lady Dragons struggled
offensively, hitting a season-low .120. HCC did have a season-high 14 team
blocks, but had several ball handling errors and crucial missed attacks
during the match.
“We knew it would be tough,”
Shirley said. “We let errors snowball. We didn’t allow that to happen this
weekend. Tonight we let the game get to us mentally and against a good team
like Pratt, you can’t do that. Pratt capitalized on it.”
Five players – sophomores
Karol Marins, Bailea Phelan and Debbie Ohl and freshmen Kate Morrell and
Beth Cornwell – had eight kills each to lead the Lady Dragons (3-2, 0-1).
Ohl had the top hitting percentage for the match at .333.
Hutchinson had 14 team
blocks, seven in the second set alone, but only four came in the final two
sets. Ohl finished with one solo block and nine block assists. Cornwell had
seven block assists.
“Offensively, we didn’t do a
good job,” Shirley said. “We struggled offensively. We had a good block for
a while, but that even went by the wayside.”
Freshman Lindsay Dusin had
36 set assists and eight digs. Sophomore libero Carol Logato had 18 digs to
lead the Lady Dragons.
Pratt was led by freshman
outside hitter Ong Ly, who had seven of her match-high 12 kills in the
fourth set. Katerin Trejos had 11 kills, five in the fourth set. Sophomore
Kalie Mader had 10 kills. Tatiana Gonzalez and Juliana Chavez had six kills
each.
After dropping the first
set, the Lady Dragons raced out to an 8-1 lead in the second set. Backed by
a strong block – Ohl and Cornwell had four blocks each – the Lady Dragons
dominated the set to knot the match a 1-1.
HCC got off to a similar
start in the third set, building a pair of six point leads. Pratt battled
back to tie the set at 18-all. Both teams had set points in the third, but
with set tied at 28-all, a pair of missed HCC attacks handed the third set
to Pratt.
The fourth set was back and
fourth as well, but Pratt led 19-16. Phelan came to life to pull HCC back
into the set. Her fifth kill of the set gave HCC at 24-23 lead, but Pratt
scored the final three points to take the match.
“It was a good match. It was
a battle,” Shirley said. “That’s what we needed. Maybe we needed a reality
check. It’s better to have it happen early in the season as opposed to
having it happen late in the season.”
The Lady Dragons will play
four matches at the Hillsborough Invitational in Hillsboro, Fla.
GAME SUMMARY
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