JUCO volleyball: IHCC sweeps through Blue Dragon Classic
Sep. 26—HUTCHINSON, Ks. — The second-ranked Indian Hills volleyball team completed another perfect weekend, going 4-0 in Kansas at the Blue Dragon Classic with sweeps on Saturday against Cloud County (25-12, 25-18, 25-21) and Butler (27-25, 25-20, 25-16) after securing another top-10 win on Friday with a 25-15, 26-24, 26-24 sweep of eighth-ranked Trinity Valley following a five-game win (25-22, 25-21, 21-25, 22-25, 15-11) over Jefferson College at the Hutchinson Sports Arena.
The Warriors improved to 25-1 overall on the year and have now won 18 matches in a row. The win over Trinity Valley moves the Warriors to 10-1 vs. teams that have appeared in the national rankings this year.
"Jenna (Vallee) and Kinga (Michalska) were lights out for us in the second match," IHCC head volleyball coach Lyndsey Michel said. "In the first match, we didn't serve very aggressive and it took us out of our system. We got back on track with serving a little more sauce and were able to run the court our style and pace in the second match.
"We stuck to our game plan playing to defend their middles and it paid off for us."
Taking on Jefferson for the second time this season, the Warriors jumped out to a commanding 2-0 lead before the Vikings rallied over the next two frames to force Indian Hills into its sixth fifth-set match of the year. The two sides battled back-and-forth early on in the decisive frame before Jefferson took an 11-9 lead and forced Indian Hills to play from behind.
The Warriors went to Vallée, who powered the offense to six consecutive points, including the final kill of the match, to close out the come-from-behind victory for Indian Hills. Vallee posted a team-high 13 kills in 40 attempts in the win to go along with 12 digs.
Larissa Barreiros Scatamburlo was once again in the mix at the net for IHCC with 12 kills on 40 attempts. Kinga Michalska added 10 kills for the Warriors.
On the defensive front, Sasha Vidal once again superb for Indian Hills. The freshman libero posted a career-high 37 digs in the win.
Two-time reigning Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) Defensive Player of the Week Jarolin de los Santos posted a career-high eight solo blocks and finished the match with 12 total blocks to up her nation-leading total to 120. The Warriors showed no signs of exhaustion against eighth-ranked Trinity Valley, cruising to an opening-set victory before prevailing over the next two thrilling sets to clinch the team's 12th sweep of the season.
Vallee once again led the Warriors with 12 kills and 12 digs, producing the fifth double-double of the year. Michalska added 11 kills for the Warriors while de los Santos impacted the nightcap on the offensive end this time, posting eight kills in 11 attempts for a .545 hitting percentage.
Vidal added 22 digs, bringing her season total to the second most in the NJCAA with 524. Hennesys Lalane posted 43 assists in the opening match and followed up with 44 in the win over Trinity Valley, marking the ninth and 10th times this season the sophomore setter has posted at least 40 assists in a single match.
The Warriors now return to Iowa Community College Athletic Conference (ICCAC) play Wednesday night at Marshalltown Community College. Match time is set for 7:00 PM.
