Injury overshadows Garden City loss to rival Dodge

Garden City, KS-Early into Friday night's matchup with rival Dodge City, the Broncbusters were dealt a blow that took the life out of the Perryman Athletic Complex. 

Freshman outside hitter Hannah Hattabaugh suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury just four points into the first set. 

Hattabaugh was writhing in pain, and let out a scream that could be heard from the parking lot. It was all down hill from there. 

The Conquistadors took full advantage of the short-handed Broncbusters, marching to a four-set victory 17-25, 25-23, 21-25 and 18-25. 

For the Broncbusters, it was their fourth straight loss. 

But all thoughts after the match were with Hattabaugh. 

"I'm proud of my girls for fighting with what happened," Head Coach Jacquelynne Matula said. "It's hard to deal with that kind of stuff."

For Matula, she's all too familiar with the site of a fallen player. On Wednesday, Garden City lost sophomore outside hitter Shaney Tiumalu to a knee injury. 

"It's been a tough week," the second-year coach added. "We lost two outside hitters in the matter of two days."

Injury aside, Dodge City (4-3, 2-0) dominated the stunned Broncbusters. Alex Bruey's 11 kills sparked the Conquistadors, who won their third straight match. 

The Broncbusters dropped to 2-5 overall and 1-2 in conference. Garden City is off until Wednesday when they travel to Hutch.