BLUE DRAGON RALLY FALLS SHORTS AGAINST REIVERS
Hutchinson CC Sports Information
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa – Match No. 2 of the Reiver Classic brought mixed results for the Hutchinson Community College volleyball team on Friday at Reiver Arena.
The Blue Dragons trailed tournament host Iowa Western 2-0 Friday night before rallying to win the third set decisively and then nearly came back from an early 6-1 deficit to fall to the Reivers 3-1 (16-25, 15-25, 25-17, 23-25) to finish Day 1. The Blue Dragons lost in four sets to Salt Lake earlier in the day.
Hutchinson (0-2) will close out the Reiver Classic with No. 16 Western Nebraska, which also went 0-2 on Day 1 of the Reiver Classic. That match is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Saturday in Council Bluffs.
Sophomore right-side hitter Jaylynn McNeill led the Blue Dragons with 12 kills on .385 hitting against Iowa Western. McNeill had seven kills and no errors with a .467 attack percentage in the final two sets to fuel the Blue Dragon comeback. McNeill also had two blocks.
The Blue Dragons hit .074 in the first two sets, but started to find some offensive flow in the third and fourth sets, hitting at a .274 clip.
Sophomore Alondra Villanueva posted the first double-double of the season for Hutchinson with 12 kills on .167 hitting with a team-high 16 digs. Atlyn Proctor had seven kills with two service aces.
Freshman setter Alexandra Garcia came off the bench in the final three sets to posted 28 assists and four service aces. Sophomore Angela Reupena had eight assists and seven digs. Freshman Mattie Galliher had three total blocks for the Dragons.
Hutchinson tallied 88 digs, nine team blocks and 11 service aces against the Reivers.
The Blue Dragons hit .276 in a decisive third-set victory. McNeill and Proctor had four kills each in the set. The Dragons jumped out to leads of 5-0, 9-2 and 20-11 before closing out their first set victory of the match.
The Blue Dragons dug a 6-1 hole in the fourth set before slowing turning things around. The Dragons
finally tied the set at 20-20 on a powerful McNeill kill down the line. That prompted a Reiver timeout. Iowa Western sided out on the next rally and kept the lead for good in a 25-23 set-clinching win.