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HCC Sports Information
Thursday, September 3, 2009
HILLSBOROUGH, Fla. – Coming
off a disappointing loss to one nationally ranked team on its home floor on
Tuesday night, the 13th-ranked Hutchinson Community College volleyball team
bumped off another ranked opponent on its home floor on Thursday night.
The Lady Dragons toppled No.
10 Hillsborough Community College in five sets – 22-25, 25-15, 25-15, 19-25,
15-8 – to earn its second victory of the season over a Top 10-ranked
opponent. HCC defeated No. 3 Missouri State-West Plains last weekend at Iowa
Western.
Hutchinson (4-2) will play
four matches over the weekend at the Hillsborough Invitational, getting a
rematch with Hillsborough on Saturday in the final match of the tournament.
“They had some big hitters,”
said HCC head coach Ronda Shirley, whose team is now 3-2 against NJCAA
ranked opponents in 2009. “Our block was great and our serves really kept
them off balance and kept them from running a quick offense.”
As a team, Hutchinson had a
season-high .276 hitting percentage. In HCC’s fourth-set loss, the Lady
Dragons hit just .100 and had seven hitting, ball-handling or net errors.
But in the fifth set, Hutch caught fire, hitting a resounding .454 in the
team’s first fifth set of the season.
On Tuesday night, the Lady
Dragons didn’t have a single ace serve against No. 18 Pratt. HCC tallied
seven aces against Hillsborough. HCC also had 10 team blocks, including five
solo stuffs.
Shirley also changed around
the line-up, switching to a 6-2 offense, which meant that freshman setter
Emme Russell saw her first action of the season in teaming with freshman
Lindsay Dusin. Russell had 23 set assists and five digs in her season debut,
while Dusin had 21 assists and nine digs.
“We went to a 6-2 so we
didn’t put so much pressure on one freshman setter,” Shirley said.
“Sometimes they can handle it and sometimes they don’t. Emme brings a lot of
excitement to the court.”
The other change was moving
sophomore Carol Logato back to the outside on the front row. Logato had been
playing libero. That move also paid off as Logato pounded down 11 kills with
four aces, nine digs and two blocks.
“Carol’s smart. She talks to
everybody. She knows what people are going to do and she ran the court
tonight,” Shirley said. “She’s a smart player. She doesn’t hit the ball with
a lot of power, but she places the ball where people aren’t.”
Sophomore Karol Marins led
the Lady Dragons with 14 kills, hitting .321, with three ace serves and one
block.
Sophomore Debbie Ohl had
nine kills with five blocks and five digs. Freshman Kate Morrell had eight
kills on .400 hitting and added three blocks and eight digs. Freshman Beth
Cornwell had six kills, hitting .500, with two blocks.
On Friday, the Lady Dragons
will square off with State College of Florida at 11 a.m. and St. Petersburg
College at 1:30 p.m. On Saturday, Hutchinson will meet Gulf Coast Community
College at 11 a.m. and will have its rematch with Hillsborough at 1:30 p.m.
The Lady Dragons will open
at home next Wednesday, Sept. 9 against Colby at 6:30 p.m. in the Sports
Arena. |
