Conference title hopes on the line; A look ahead at the Grizzlies final week of regular season

Story by Wyatt Ebersole:

Coming off back-to-back home sweeps of Barton and Dodge City last week, the now 17th ranked Butler Grizzlies Volleyball squad now prepares for two of their toughest and most important matches of the season. Butler will face 13th ranked and first-place Seward County on Wednesday in the Power Plant and then conclude the regular season on Friday at home against the Hutchinson Blue Dragons. The Grizzlies are very much playing for their second consecutive conference title. After last week's sweeps, the Grizzlies improved to 12-2 in conference play keeping them just 1.5 games behind Seward County and a half game ahead of third-place Hutchinson.  

The math for the Grizzlies to win their second consecutive conference title is simple: Win. Out. A loss to Seward or Hutchinson would eliminate the Grizzlies from the conference title race. 

The Grizzlies have won 22-straight matches in the Power Plant dating back to the Spring 2021 season 

RECORD WATCH:

#4 Rainey Aven has already left her mark on the Butler Volleyball record books breaking the set assists in a career record on October 7th against Trinity Valley and is currently sitting at 1,702 assists in her Grizzly career. Aven also broke the record for set assists in a match with 52 against Tyler Junior College on October 8th. The 5'9 sophomore from Hereford, Texas is now pursuing the record for set assists in a season which is currently held by Shannon Mandarin at 1,125. Rainey's total so far this season is 1,059.  

#15 Ivy Fink is currently chasing the record for kills in a career which is currently set at 740 by former All-American Crystal Blue. Ivy is getting close to that number currently sitting at 630 kills in her career.   

#20 Kennedy Kelly currently leads the NJCAA in hitting percentage by a wide margin at a crazy high .402 percentage. Kennedy is well on pace to break the Grizzly record for hitting percentage in a season which is a record currently held by Amanda Newlin's 2010 season where she hit .378.  

LOOKING AT SEWARD:

In what is probably the most important Jayhawk Conference game of the regular season, the 26-5 and 13th ranked Seward County Saints travel to El Dorado to face the 21-11 and 17thranked Butler Grizzlies on Wednesday at 6PM. Seward defeated the Grizzlies 3-1 in Liberal, Kansas just two weeks ago. Butler took a close first set, but Seward responded with a pair of dominant victories in sets two and three that gave them all the momentum going into set four and they handed the Grizzlies 3-1 defeat. Butler's offense was stifled all night by Seward as the Grizzlies hit .179 as a team, the second worst hitting percentage of the season for the Grizzlies. Seward is just the second team in the conference to beat the Grizzlies at all in the past two seasons and is the only conference team since the Spring 2021 season to beat the Grizzlies in fewer than five sets. 

Seward has been the most dominant team in the KJCCC since 2016, having won every regular season conference title except one and have appeared in every region title game, winning it in 16', 18', 19' and Spring 21'. Seward lost the region title game to Butler 3-0 last season.  

Seward is led by a trio of fantastic offensive players consisting of Sarah Cruz, Seyun Park, and Aubreigh Haxton. When these teams met earlier in the year, all three Saints hit above .350 in the match and had at least six kills each.  

A lot rides on this match as if Seward wins, they will claim the conference championship on Butler's home floor, meaning that for the sixth time in seven years, the Region VI Playoffs would run through the Greenhouse in Liberal, Kansas. A Butler win would bring the Grizzlies to a deadlocked tie with the Saints and all eyes would shift towards Butler's match vs Hutchinson on Friday to determine the conference champion. Depending on Wednesday's match final set count, the Grizzlies could potentially own a tiebreaker for Region VI standings.

SIZING UP THE BLUE DRAGONS:

The 24-10 Hutchinson Blue Dragons will face off with the 21-11 and 17thranked Butler Grizzlies on Friday in the Power Plant at 6PM. Butler picked up a huge road sweep of the Hutch Blue Dragons on October 12th. After only winning two matches in 19 years against the Blue Dragons, Butler has now won the last four matches and have swept Hutch in the last three.  

Hutchinson is coming off a shocking 3-1 defeat at the hands of the Garden City Broncbusters who had previously only beaten Hutch once in the past 22 seasons. The loss dropped Hutch down into third in the conference and ended Hutch's chances at a conference title. 

Hutch has certainly had an up and down season. They have played some high-quality volleyball in several matches this year. Such as drawing #2 Indian Hills to a five-set match, beating now #7 MSU-West Plains in five, and a stunning sweep of Seward County at the Sports Arena, but the Blue Dragons have also had some brutal losses like getting swept by Butler at home, losing to a struggling Iowa Western in 4, and the loss last week against Garden City. The Blue Dragons will certainly be looking to pull off the win in the Power Plant to end the regular season, a place where Hutch hasn't won a match since the 2018 season. 

Conference Championship Scenarios for Each Team  

SEWARD (Leads conference) 

Seward wins the conference title with a win against Butler OR a Butler loss against Hutchinson 

BUTLER (1.5 games back) 

Butler wins a share of the conference title with wins against Seward AND Hutchinson 

Region VI First Round Playoff Matchups as of Now: 

#8 Cloud at #1 Seward 

#7 Barton at #2 Butler 

#6 Colby at #3 Hutchinson 

#5 Garden City at #4 Dodge City 

Highest remaining seed hosts final four 

LOOKING AHEAD: 

Regardless of the conference winner, Butler will for sure host a first-round playoff matchup on Wednesday, November 2nd against Cloud (4-11), Barton (4-10), or Colby (5-10) depending on where all teams, both at the top and the bottom, finish out the season. After the first round, assuming Butler and/or Seward advance, the Region VI Final Four will take place either in El Dorado or Liberal on November 4th and 5th.