DOWNING, DRAGONS EARN MILESTONE VICTORIES

Blue Dragon head volleyball coach Delice Downing speaks with Shelby Reeder between points on Thursday at the Sports Arena. Hutchinson defeated Pratt 3-0, giving Downing her first coaching win with the Blue Dragons (Sammi Carpenter/Blue Dragon Sports Information)

January 28, 2021

Hutchinson CC Sports Information

Thursday, January 28, 2021

A couple of milestones were reached on Thursday night in the Hutchinson Community College volleyball team's home opener.

First-year head coach Delice Downing earned her first win on the Blue Dragon bench and the Blue Dragon program earned all-time victory No. 1,100.

Hutchinson earns its first win of the season and evened its Jayhawk West record with a 3-0 sweep of the Pratt Beavers (25-15, 25-16, 25-20) at the Hutchinson Sports Arena. The Blue Dragons extended their winning streak against Pratt to 22 matches.

The Blue Dragons hit only .122 for the match, but held the Beavers to .011 hitting.

Sophomore Jenna Thorne led the Blue Dragons with nine kills and 12 digs. She also added an ace.

Sophomore Myracle Lettries and Taegen Larsen came off the bench to produce five kills each. Lettries, who had four kills in the opening set, also had two block assists. Larsen finished with an ace and two block assists. Freshmen Kristina Head, Shadee Briggs and Shelby Murrell had three kills each.

Sophomore setter Chloe Price finished with 23 assists and four service aces. Freshman libero Shelby Reeder had 14 digs.

The Blue Dragons out-blocked Pratt 5-3 and had eight service aces.

Avery Smith had eight kills to lead Pratt. The Beavers had 21 attack errors and 13 service errors to help Hutchinson's cause.

Leading 4-2 early in the opening set, Lettries provided an early spark with a kill and block assists in a 6-0 run that gave Hutchinson a 10-2 lead. Another Lettries kill and one of 10 Beaver attack errors in the opening set gave the Dragons a 16-6 lead. Leading 20-14, the Blue Dragons closed the set with a 5-1 run. Thorne finished off the set with a kill for a 25-15 lead.

Pratt held their only leads of the match early in the second set at 4-3 and 9-7 and 13-12. The Blue Dragons countered with a four-point run capped by Price's kill on an over-dig for an 11-9 Hutch lead. With the set tied at 14, Price put together an eight-point service run with three aces. Back-to-back ace serves capped the run for a 22-14 Dragon lead. Leading 23-16, a Larsen kill and Kenna Lane ace, the last of seven Hutchinson aces in the set, finished off Pratt.

The Blue Dragons led the third set 5-4 and took control with an 8-1 run for a 13-6 lead. Pratt kept it close and trailed 18-15 after a Yianmaire Catala ace. Kills by Thorne, Larsen and Murrell were part of four-unanswered points for the Dragons giving Hutch a 22-15 lead. Leading 23-19, Thorne had a kill and the team's traded service errors on the final two rallies of the match for Hutch's first sweep of the season.

The 1-1 Blue Dragons play three matches on Saturday at the Laramie County Classic in Cheyenne Wyoming. Hutch returns to the Sports Arena on Tuesday to take on Barton.