REED REACHES 1,000 DIG MILESTONE; DRAGONS DROP PAIR

Hutchinson CC Sports Information

WEST PLAINS, Missouri – Hutchinson Community College sophomore libero Raychel Reed became the fourth Blue Dragon in program history to reach 1,000 career digs on Saturday.

Unfortunately, the Blue Dragons lost a pair of matches to close out the Grizzly Invitational at the West Plains Civic Center. The Dragons fell in four sets to No. 11 Tyler 17-25, 25-17, 25-11, 25-22. Hutchinson then finished the tournament with a 1-3 record after dropping a five-set match to invitational host Missouri State-West Plains 22-25, 25-22, 24-26, 25-13, 15-7.

Entering play on Saturday, Reed, a sophomore from Aurora, Colorado, needed 16 digs to reach the milestone. She finished with 21 against Tyler and 29 against West Plains. Now with 1,034 career digs, Reed joins Mariana Blum (1,242), Samantha Lackey (1,189) and McKenzie Steele (1,160) as the only Blue Dragons with 1,000 career digs.

With the losses, the Blue Dragons are 14-14 heading into a key Jayhawk West week with matches against Butler at the Sports Arena on Wednesday and at Dodge City on Friday night.

TYLER RECAP
Setters Cassidy Crites and Payton Gawith both had double-doubles, but the Blue Dragons dropped a four-set match to nationally ranked Tyler for the second time this season.

Crites finished with 19 assists and 14 digs. Gawith added 12 assists and 13 digs.

Elena Takova led the Dragons with 13 kills and hit .257 on 35 attacks. Eden Hiebert finished with 10 kills and Lexi Hogan had seven kills.

Claira Creach also reached double figures in digs with 19.

The Blue Dragons had five service aces, three from Reed. Hutch had only five team blocks.

WEST PLAINS RECAP
Looking for its second win of the season over West Plains, the Blue Dragons led their final match of the Grizzly Classic 2-1. Hutch had an inconsistent offensive attack with three of its top hitters all hitting a negative attack percentage and it caught up in sets four and five against the Grizzlies.

The Blue Dragons got a bulk of their offense from the block with 14 total blocks against West Plains. Freshman Delilah Vigil had a career-best 10 total blocks and Crites added seven.

Takova again led Hutchinson with 12 kills, but had 15 errors on 37 swings. Hogan had seven kills and 11 errors on 38 attacks and Hiebert was limited to two kills with six errors on 31 swings.

Vigil hit a career-best .643 with 10 kills and one error on 14 attacks. Crites had five kills.

Crites finished with 17 assists and Gawith added 15. Creach had 12 digs.