Take that! Broncbusters sweep Dodge City

By Mike Pilosof

Photos by Adam Shrimplin

Garden City, KS-As the season gets set to enter its' final month, the Broncbusters are starting to come together. Monday night provided more evidence of that.

Katarina Vojvodic tallied 12 kills, Katie McHugh added a match-high 19 assists, and Garden City busted out the brooms, sweeping rival Dodge City (25-17, 25-19, 25-22). It was their third win in their last four matches.

"We played incredibly clean volleyball tonight, in all facets of the game," Head Coach Patrick Hiltz said afterwards. "What I'm most pleased with however, is how well we kept our composure throughout the match."

Garden City wasted no time jumping on the Conquistadors in the opening set, scoring six of the first seven points, punctuated by Vojvodic's kill. Summer Nerkowski added a powerful spike, Dodge City committed a trio of errors, and Garden City had an 11-point advantage, 15-4. But Dodge City rallied back, using an 11-2 run to pull within two. It wasn't until Katie McHugh tapped the ball over the net, that the Broncbusters reestablished control. Garden City closed the frame on an 8-2 surge, capped off with an error by the visitors that gave Garden City a 1-0 advantage.  

"Dodge City made a very strong push that easily could have rattled us," Hiltz explained. "But we finished strong and closed out the set."

The Conquistadors proved scrappy in the second set, keeping things tight while taking a 12-10 lead. But spikes by Angel Sherman and Vojvodic got Garden City back on track. Vojvodic added another kill followed by McHugh and Sherman, putting the Broncbusters up 23-18. They finished off the set when Mikayla Zapien hit the ball out of play.

"We got down, but again, we stayed calm," Hiltz said. "We never let them get too far away."

Vojvodic got the Broncbusters off and running in the third with back-to-back kills. Summer Nerkowski followed with a cross-court blast, and Garden City was up 4-1. They stretched that lead to 8-3 on a Dodge City hitting error. But the Conquistadors rallied back again, using a 12-4 run to take a brief lead. But consecutive errors by the visiting team and a spectacular block by Meosha Erving put Garden City up 19-15. Erving, Nerkowski, and Sherman added kills, and Dodge City committed a hitting error on match point, giving the Broncbusters their first sweep of the season.

"There was a brief moment in the third set where we could have let things get away from us," Hiltz said. "But again, I thought we controlled our emotions very very well. That can be tough to do in a rivalry game."

Alexandra Jackson led the way with 10 digs for Garden City. Nerkowski and McHugh each tallied eight, and Sherman added six assists.

Garden City has Tuesday off before entertaining Pratt on Wednesday. Match time set for 6:30 p.m.