BLUE DRAGONS FALL TO COLBY IN FOUR SETS

Hutchinson CC Sports Information

Despite a career night from sophomore Elena Takova, the Hutchinson Community College volleyball team's inconsistent passing doomed the Blue Dragons in a four-set Jayhawk West loss to Colby on Monday night at the Sports Arena.

The Blue Dragons won the first set, but Colby took advantage of Hutch's passing issues late in the final three sets to snap a nine-match losing streak to the Dragons in the Arena with a 24-26, 25-20, 26-24, 25-20 victory.

Hutchinson falls to 12-10 overall and 7-4 in the Jayhawk West heading into Wednesday's road match at Garden City. Colby is now 20-1 overall, 10-1 in the Jayhawk West. The Trojans sweep the season series with Hutchinson for the first time since 2011, which was the last time the Trojans defeated the Blue Dragons at the Arena.

Takova had 25 kills and only four attack errors on 64 swings to hit .328 on Monday night in leading the Blue Dragons. Takova's 25 kills ties Dragana Micic for sixth most in Blue Dragon single-match history. Her 25 kills also tie Micic for the second most in a four-set match in Hutchinson volleyball history. Takova had 20 kills through three sets.

The Blue Dragons were out-hit .188-.168, but total kills were tied at 56. The Trojans out-blocked the Dragons 8-6, but Hutch had 103 digs in the match to Colby's 92. The 103 digs tied for fifth most in a four-set match in HutchCC history.

The big difference was that Colby had 10 service aces to none for the Dragons, which is the first time in 2018 the Dragons didn't record a service ace.

Sophomore Cassidy Crites had her ninth double-double of the season with 27 assist and a career-high 22 digs. She also added four kills and two block assists.

Freshman Delilah Vigil had 10 kills on .304 hitting with five digs and four block assists. Eden Hiebert and Lexi Hogan had six kills each.

Sophomore libero Raychel Reed had 26 digs to jump both Erika Godbolt (2003-04) and Sarah Claborn (2006-07) into fifth place on the Blue Dragon career digs list with 935 career digs. In addition to Reed and Crites, Claira Creach and Hiebert were also in double figures in digs with 15 and 11, respectively.

Julie Archer had 17 kills and 14 digs to lead Colby.

Where were 33 total ties and 16 lead changes in the match.

Set 1: Takova had seven kills in the opening set as Hutchinson hit .224 and sided out at 58 percent to Colby's .208 hitting percentage and 53 percent sideout rate. The Dragons lead 13-8 in the opening set, but Colby tied the match at 16 with an 8-3 run. Tied at 17, Takova had three kills in a 4-1 run to lead 21-18 and force a Trojan timeout. Colby scored three straight to knot the set at 22, but committed an attack error. Tied at 24, Vigil had a kill and Colby was called for a ball-handling error to give Hutch a 26-24 win.

Set 2: The Dragons hit just .043 in the second set as Colby used an early 12-5 run to lead 14-7. The Colby lead remained seven at 19-12 and the closest Hutch got was 24-20 on a Lauren Willson kill. Colby hit only .125, but was 14 of 20 in sideout opportunities.

Set 3: Tied at 7 in the third, the Blue Dragons created some distance with three Takova kills and when Tara Davis pounded on off the block, the Blue Dragons led 17-11. But Hutch's passing issues started to hurt late in the set. Colby then had three aces in a in a 13-5 run that pushed the Trojans to the brink of a third-set win. The Dragons tied it at 24 on Takova's 20th kill of the match and a set error on Colby. The Trojons finished off the set at 26-24 on a kill and service ace. The Dragons out-hit Colby .240-.152 in the third set.

Set 4: The fourth set featured 12 ties and eight lead changes. The Dragons trailed 9-5, but went on an 8-3 run to lead 13-12 after a Vigil kill. After going back-and-fourth, the Dragons tied the fourth set at 20 on a Hogan kill. Colby scored the final five points of the match. Colby hit .260 on 17 kills in the fourth set. The Dragons hit .156.