Volleyball Cruises on Day One at KCAC Fling
Hutchinson, KS - The Hastings College volleyball team opened its 2021 campaign by defeating York 25-7, 25-9, 25-11 and then defeating Southwestern 25-17, 25-13, 25-15 on day one of the KCAC Fling.
The Lady Broncos showed its strength right from the get go opening up an 8-1 lead in set one as Makenna Asher (SO/Hastings, NE) picked up the first kill of the season to give HC the early 2-0 lead. Then Jaisee Stinson (JR/Omaha, NE) connected with Amani Monroe (SR/Colorado Springs, CO) and Sydney Mullin (SR/North Platte, NE) for back-to-back kills to make it 4-1.
Miriam Miller (FR/Lincoln, NE) began her collegiate career by picking up a kill to make it 6-1 and then Ireland Currey (SR/Lincoln, NE) recorded a service ace to make it 7-1.
From that point, Hastings cruised through set one winning 25-7. Hastings hit an astonishing .391 while holding the Panthers to a -.259 hitting percentage in set one.
Set two saw Hastings open up a 7-1 lead behind kills from Grace Branson (FR/Lawrence, KS), Emily Krolikowski (SR/Cairo, NE) and Asher. HC ran the lead up to eight behind the strength of kills from Miller and Mullin to lead 12-4 en route to a 25-9 set two victory. Again, the HC defense held the Panther offense to hit just -.125. At this point of the match, Hastings recorded 22 kills compared to just seven for York.
Set three had another dominating feel for Hastings hitting .346 while hodling York to just -.083. For the match, Hastings hit .321 while York hit a -.160.
Krolikowski was nearly unstoppable with eight kills on 10 swings as she hit .700. Branson got her freshman campaign off to a great start picking up seven kills while hitting .500. Miller added six kills, Mullin finished with five kills while Asher and Monroe each finished with four kills.
Asher led the team with 15 assists while Stinson added 13. Currey finisshed the match with 11 digs while Kamri Adler (JR/Hastings, NE) added 10 digs. Stinson was also tough on the serve recording five service aces.
In the second match of the day, it looked like Southwestern would pose a bigger threat as set one was tied 10-10 and the Builders kept it within three points at 18-15 before HC slammed the door.
Stinson would connect with Miller for a kill and then Mullin and Asher teamed up for a block to make it 20-15.
The teams then traded points to 22-17 when Miller picked up back-to-back service aces followed by a kill from Krolikowski to give set one to the Lady Broncos 25-17.
After that first set, it was all Hastings as HC opened up a 10-2 lead in set two behind the strength of a Krolikowski kill to start things off, a service ace from Ava Lovitt (FR/Beatrice, NE), a few errors from the Builders coupled with a kill from Krolikowski and a kill from Miller.
Set three had pretty much the same feel with Hastings opening up a 19-8 lead en route to the 25-15 three set sweep.
Hastings held the Builders to just .056 hitting while HC hit .287. Krolikowski led the way with a match high 13 kills hitting .440 in the process. Asher had a big game with nine kills hitting .750 while also recording a match high 20 assists. Mullin finished with seven kills while Miller and Monroe each had six. Stinson added 16 assists. Currey led the way again on that back line with 19 digs.
Hastings improves to 2-0 on the year and will be back in action Saturday Aug. 21 taking on Friends at 9:00 am followed by Bethel (KS) at 3:00 pm down in Hutchinson, KS
